


Heart of Magic

by Paisleylace



Series: Cast A Spell On Me [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Angst, Awkward Romance, F/F, Ghosts, I'm pretty sure magic doesn't work this way, M/M, Minor characters/Psuedo OCs, Side pairings undecided but will be added here when they are, Spooky shenanigans, suicide warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:50:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5781292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paisleylace/pseuds/Paisleylace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to 'Superstitious'. Euroshipping. Seto Kaiba, now free from an unwelcome ghost from the past, has only just begun to scratch the surface of the supernatural oddities that fill Domino. The oddest of all however, has to be Ryou Bakura. (Will adapt the DOMA and KC Grand Prix arcs eventually.) </p><p>Repost from my FF.net account.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kyo Mayu Tori

And here's the Euroshippy sequel to Superstitious, which you should probably read before reading this if you haven't. The chapter titles are named after the soundtrack from an anime called Mushi-shi, which is a huge tonal and visual inspiration for me, as well as being a great show that you should totally watch. Other inspirations for this series are Yami Shibai and Fuan no Tane. 

* * *

  _He's standing beside Mokuba's bed, only it isn't really him. His body is moving on its own, independent of Seto's own will. He wonders if this is how Yugi and Malik and Ryou felt when their other selves took over._

_Mokuba doesn't wake up when Seto's body sits down on the mattress, when someone else uses his fingers to comb through the black mop of his hair. When his mouth grins and **his** voice says, "You took everything from me, so now I'll take everything from you."_

_Seto screams as his own hands close around his baby brother's neck and **squeeze**._

He awakens in his bed, drenched in a cold sweat for the second time that night. He peels the sheets away and notices the time. Three AM, exactly two hours and thirty seven minutes since the last one.

He has never even touched a cigar, yet the phantom taste of tobacco lingers on his teeth. Seto throws off the covers and stalks into his en suite. An empty mouthwash bottle taunts him.

His skin is feeling more than a little raw now as he scrubs himself completely clean in the shower again with every wash and gel he has, an angry red under the near blisteringly hot spray. He briefly considers gargling the shampoo.

This isn't the first time he's had a nightmare where his brother is murdered by his own hands since his possession, but it's the first one where Gozaburo's voice decided to make an appearance.

* * *

 Mokuba is in the small private kitchen already, picking through a bag of grapes at the table to find the 'good' ones. He looks at his red skin and the towel around Seto's neck curiously, but lets him boil the kettle in peace.

Coffee has been unceremoniously banned from the kitchen - and the rest of the household for that matter - following what everyone has deemed the 'incident', but he's still glad Mokuba doesn't question why his brother has suddenly switched to herbal and fruit teas. The kitchen staff have a good eye for quality and today's blend is chamomile and cinnamon from Sri Lanka.

When Seto sits at the table, Mokuba rolls a grape at him and it bounces off his cup. He gives Seto a disgusted face when he doesn't check the grape for bruises before eating it, a face Seto matches when he remembers that it's not the weekend anymore.

"Don't you have school in the morning? Go to bed."

"Yeah and nope. I can't sleep and it looks like you can't either, so we might as well keep each other company. Hey, didn't you drop out?"

"I did. I should be back in class next week." Domino High was more than happy to re-accept him. The teachers probably thought they were being kind when they said that his previous grades meant there was no need to catch up on the homework, but he really could use the distraction.

"I can't believe I could've graduated before my big brother." Seto rolls his eyes as he sips his tea.

" _Bed._ Or I uninvite your class."

"You wouldn't dare!" A grape aggressively bounces off his forehead this time, but he doesn't have to look up from his tea to see Mokuba grinning, the chair he was in scraping against the floor as he darts over and latches onto his arm in mock outrage. He's not quite ready to rejoin all the sports clubs he was in yet, but his body has recovered remarkably quickly from its long downtime. He's still too skinny in Seto's opinion though, so maybe it's for the best that he decided to have a late night snack. Or five, judging by the rest of the debris around the kitchen.

The private party was meant to happen two weeks ago, but has somehow morphed into an immense gala set in October instead - Seto has long since lost count of how many phone calls and emails he's had to make to Yugi and Ryou and the others about the date changing, so this had better be the last delay. He can at least use it as an excuse to host a fundraiser for the local children's clinic, because apparently being charitable is a euphemism for a photo op to some people.

Mokuba grabs Seto's wrist, switching their bracelets. The garnet inlaid on the bracelet is cold and inert on his skin, just like all the other times they had switched. Seto suspects that Mokuba doesn't quite understand the importance of the jewels, but is simply happy to indulge in his older brother's new habit.

"You're right, I wouldn't. You're still responsible for making sure they don't cause trouble though."

"Trust me, that won't be a problem." Vague memories of Mokuba running the world's shortest street gang emerge, striking fear into the hearts of Capsule Monster collectors everywhere. He doesn't have many memories of the time before _that_ duel, so he quietly treasures the ones that do emerge, even if they're less than flattering. Like this one, where he neglected Mokuba enough that he fell in with a band of bullies much like the ones that tormented him at the orphanage.

Mokuba lets go of his arm.

"Actually, Seto? Can I talk to you about something first? I promise I'll go to bed right after." There's a seriousness to his voice that has Seto's attention instantly.

"Sure - not at the table though. Remind me to order some chairs with cushions."

* * *

 Mokuba doesn't sit down right away. He waits for Seto to settle on the couch before clambering into his lap. He hasn't done this since they were in the orphanage, during the long nights after far too many prospective parents came along who'd take one or the other, but couldn't possibly make room in their lives for both. It's oddly nostalgic and he finds himself running his fingers through Mokuba's hair just like he used to.

Just like in the dream, but he ignores that as best as he can.

"I wanna know who it was."

"Who it was?"

"The ghost that possessed you." Mokuba hesitates on the word, like he couldn't believe what he was saying. It makes sense - even though he suffered from Gozaburo's curse, it must still be strange for him to see his skeptical brother change his tune so suddenly.

"Nobody you knew." It's not a complete lie, he tells himself. Mokuba barely spent any time with Gozaburo. He was thankfully ignored for the most part, viewed as a disposable spare at worst and part of the furniture at best.

In all honesty, it's not like anyone in the entire world could say they actually knew Gozaburo Kaiba.

Mokuba buries his face in Seto's shoulder and his voice wavers as he speaks.

"I never knew Mom."

The low hum of the fridge is the only sound for a long time. Mokuba puts up little resistance as Seto pushes him away to look him in the eyes. They glisten in the soft light of the kitchen.

"Mokuba, listen to me."

He nods, but looks away.

"Mother loved you. She loved you so much that when everyone said she had to choose between herself and you, she chose _you_. She would never want to hurt you, or me."

He doesn't look like he quite believes Seto yet and opens his mouth to say something else, but Seto knows what the game is now and beats him to it.

"And it wasn't Father either. I don't care what our relatives or the kids at the orphanage tried to make you think, but he loved you too."

"Not enough to pay attention at the railway crossing. If he didn't do it on _purpose._ I've been reading about this stuff - ghosts like that don't appear for no reason. The worst ones are murder victims or suicides and I'd say our ghost was pretty awful. Dad wasn't murdered, so..."

Seto's not sure what to say to that. He likes to think the man he remembers would never do such a thing, but what eight year old really knows what goes on in the minds of their parents anyway? He was never told many details about what happened and their father was a relatively ordinary man, so papers from the time reported on it as little more than a tragic accident tucked away at the bottom of the page.

He remembers Father falling asleep on the couch with Mokuba tucked under his chin after a bout of colic and teaching Seto how to play chess and he doesn't doubt that the man loved both of his sons.

But that doesn't mean he didn't love their mother more.

"Seto? Do I look like her? Did... did I remind him of her?"

"Not really. You take after Father more. You have his eyes for one thing, his ridiculously messy hair for another." Mokuba snorts a little at that.

"Does that mean you look like Mom?"

"I suppose. She was taller than him, so that's probably why you're still shorter than Yugi." He remembers their mother, having burned images of her from when she wasn't sick into his mind long ago. Seto definitely inherited her sharper features and he suspects he inherited her leadership skills too, considering that she didn't stop ordering doctors around even as she lay on her deathbed.

"Hey, I could still grow! Yugi's stuck being short forever... Man, he's gonna be so pissed when he realizes I'm taller one day. I can't wait!"

"Maybe that's why he's a good duelist, it all went into his brain instead of his legs."

Mokuba chuckles at that, and Seto hopes he's managed to dissuade his gloom for the night. He might not be able to bring himself to make Mokuba go, if those sorts of thoughts are plaguing him still.

The decision is made for him when Mokuba's laugh turns into a yawn and his eyes start looking distinctly bleary. Sometimes he forgets that Mokuba is still a kid, and technically still a sick one at that - the most obvious evidence being his quiet grumbling and insistence that he can walk by himself as Seto scoops him up and carries him to his room.

"You better not try to tuck me in!"

"And upset that pillow fort you've made? Not likely."

He drops Mokuba on the bed, noticing that he still needed to move the futon from the wall, while geraniums decorate the corners. The flowers can stay, at least.

"Wait, one more thing!"

He stops at the door, waiting for Mokuba to continue. He shuffles awkwardly under Seto's gaze, looking a little embarrassed. "Sometimes I dreamed you were watching me - or maybe hallucinated, I don't know. You never said anything, just stared. Then you'd go back to sleep. It was super weird, but it was kinda nice too. Like you were a dragon watching over their treasure or something. I knew I'd be okay whenever I had that dream."

He punctuates the last part with a wide grin at Seto, who smiles back.

Seto manages to hold the smile until he closes the door, walks down the hallway and is safely back in his own room.

* * *

 "Seto? I want you to listen to me carefully. Gozaburo is gone, forever. There's nothing _left_ of him to come back."

"Gozaburo is gone." Seto repeats, slowly, in between each gasping breath. He doesn't know how many times he repeats it and he's sure it's nothing but gibberish after a while, but Ryou is far more patient than he has any right to be, considering he was just woken up at three AM by Seto on the verge of a panic attack. He doesn't speak for a while, not until Seto's breathing slows down and the edges of his vision stop being fuzzy. He clutches the bracelet in his palm hard enough that he knows they'll bruise in the morning.

"Yes. I made sure of it. Dark Necrofear is my strongest monster and she shows no mercy towards those who seek to harm their children." Ryou's voice tinges with pride and affection for his monster and Seto remembers the grotesque child she cradled. Seto wonders if that's how he sounds when he talks about the Blue Eyes White Dragons - what sort of prey they would prefer - when it occurs to him that summoning and purging his body of such a powerful monster was probably why Ryou almost single-handedly caused a salt shortage across Domino.

"It was my fault you were stuck on your apartment floor for days then."

"No. _I_ chose to use her instead of a less powerful fiend. Most of the monsters in my deck could handle him with their eyes closed. I figured you'd want the peace of mind, but ultimately it was my choice."

"If you're sure... Sorry for disturbing you, by the way. I know it's a school night."

"It's alright - I was awake anyway. Actually, I was wondering how you'd be once you had the chance to slow down and process everything that happened anyway. Mokuba wasn't the only one suffering for all that time. Are you alright?"

_'I can't smell coffee without wanting to throw up.'_

_'My skin only feels like my skin when the shower is hot enough to burn it.'_

_'I've been having dreams about trying to kill my baby brother that might have been real. In fact I just woke up from one where I strangled him, wanna know what it sounds like when someone is choking to death?'_

"I'm managing, I guess."

Ryou hums to himself, and Seto can tell he doesn't believe him one bit. For whatever reason, Ryou doesn't see fit to say anything. There's an awkward silence - he can hear something moving in Ryou's room. Maybe just him fidgeting, or a cat. Ryou seems like the kind of person who'd have a cat or twelve.

"There's one more thing I want to ask you."

He can hear Ryou jump at the suddenness of his voice and fumbling with the phone, something hitting the floor. Had he fallen asleep sat up or something?

"Go on..."

"Can you... can you speak to the dead?" The moment the question leaves his lips Seto wishes he could take it back. He sounds like a _child_ , hesitant and afraid in his ignorance in front of some divine being. He's not a child and Ryou is _Ryou_.

Ryou seems anxious in his answer, tripping over his own words at first, but once he gets started on the fine details of it all he seems to calm down. "I could. I-I mean I've done it before for one of my neighbors and... I don't see what the point is, personally, but that's not my call to make I guess. Right? Anyway, I need the belongings of the dead in order to guarantee contact with the intended spirit, not imposters or spirits trying to escape. Those will have to be burned afterwards, of course."

"Burned?"

"All the way to ashes. Once an object has been used as a channel to the afterlife, it will always be open to it. You have to destroy the object or wandering spirits will be drawn into it - and you, as the one who called on them."

"Does it have to be an object they owned? Is there anything else we can burn?"

"Well since we're both awake, feel like going grave-robbing? ... That was a bit blunt, wasn't it? Sorry!" Ryou laughs, though it's subdued. Right - Ryou lives in an apartment, he has to be quiet. Seto has to wonder how he gets away with all the incense he burns.

"Just a little." Seto hopes Ryou is drowsy enough to not notice the wavering of his voice, or how fake his own laugh sounds. Or that he's simply polite enough not to comment.

His parents were both cremated, their ashes scattered back in their home towns by their relatives and their empty urns kept apart as well. He doesn't remember the last time he had any real contact with the 'family', aside a few opportunistic cousins tried to waltz into the Kaiba Corp. building to borrow some money from their dear estranged sons. They ended up with restraining orders and none of them have been stupid enough to try the same trick since.

"If you still feel like talking to the dead, it'd be best to wait until after that gala of yours. It's due for October now, right? If that's everything..."

Something leaps into Seto's mind and the words tumble out of him, before he really has a chance to think about what he's saying.

"That wasn't a cold you were suffering from, when I first called you. You were recovering from another case like mine, right?"

Ryou doesn't answer right away. Seto can hear something in the room again, close to the receiver this time.

"Sort of. Why?" Huh. That was... abrupt. Seto is nothing if not an expert at pushing people's buttons, so he quietly files that reaction away for later.

"No reason, I was just curious."

"I see. Good night, Seto."

Ryou hangs up before Seto can reply. At least Seto knows he'll be free of nightmares now - there's no way he can waste valuable REM on Gozaburo when he has something like this for his mind to gnaw at.


	2. Gekkou

Sometime during the week before returning to school, Seto realizes that Anzu and Jounouchi are the only ones from Yugi's group who haven't gone home yet. The staff seem to have effortlessly adjusted to their presence without him realizing and he can't say he's noticed anything different either. So he's not really shocked when he finds a small cheque left at his desk one morning. The rent they're able to pay combined doesn't add up to even a fraction of what living at the Kaiba mansion would really cost, but it's enough to justify setting up a savings account for. He has no use for their money, but he might as well keep it safe for when they move out again, he decides. He doubts they'd accept him telling them not to bother. The idea of kicking them out never crosses his mind.

Jounouchi leaves for school before Seto does, riding some ramshackle bicycle that he must have found and restored himself judging by the dents. Anzu leaves even earlier, running to school in the track club uniform and neither of them seem to care about the torrential rain. They all arrive around the same time anyway, though they're significantly soggier than he is.

When he first sets foot in the classroom, he dreads a room of prying eyes and probing questions. It's bizarre that stepping into a boardroom filled with some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Japan doesn't faze him for a second, but a classroom of dozy teenagers does. He would like to say that he doesn't care what they think of him, but he obviously must on some subconscious level, or he'd act more like when he duels at school rather than sitting at the back with an old philosophy book.

What he gets is a card with a hand drawn psychedelically colored Blue Eyes roaring 'Welcome Back!', signed by everyone along with a few well wishes towards Mokuba, but otherwise the day might as well be the same as any other. Evidently someone educated the class on being nosy while he was away. He slips the card into his satchel, between two heavy textbooks so it doesn't crease.

He notices that Ryou isn't in school sometime before third period. Ordinarily, Seto wouldn't have paid attention, but he's had a hard time defining what he thinks of as 'ordinary' for a while now. Yugi and the others glance back at the empty desk every so often, Yugi looking the most concerned. The others aren't panicking, at least not yet, so he doesn't let himself get sucked in by the worry emanating from Yugi.

Seto figures he's had to redirect the frustration from not dueling on a competitive level into aggressively caring for his friends, not that he didn't do that before. There's been a break in the tournament cycle, thanks to political pissing contests about which city gets to host the next tournament as well as non-duelists complaining about Battle City hijacking Domino City. He hasn't worn a Duel Disk for weeks and he still finds himself missing the weight on his arm.

He wonders how much the others know of what Ryou gets up to - presumably they know he dabbles in occult things and that these occult things are as real as the Millennium Items were, or they wouldn't have gone along with what he said without a hint of protest. But Ryou is definitely keeping things from them, because there's no way Jounouchi wouldn't fly around on his dragon all the time if he knew there was a way to summon them for real. Seto would be lying if he said the thought didn't appeal to him either.

Anzu and Honda vanish at lunch to pick up drinks for everyone, which apparently includes Seto now because Anzu asks what he wants (just water) and he chips in at the pile of spare change for the vending machine.

Yugi and Jounouchi have turned all their desks around and pushed them together with his, so he notices when Yugi's phone vibrates with a text. Yugi reads it and the tension he's been carrying all morning seems to vanish instantly, though he still doesn't look too happy. Jounouchi guesses why.

"Bakura's moving again?"

"Yeah; he said someone tried to get in the complex yesterday asking for him. The landlord wouldn't let him past the gate, you know how strict she is about visitors."

"Is he _sure_ it's not just a guy his dad knows?"

Yugi shakes his head. "It doesn't matter who that guy was, Bakura doesn't trust the place anymore. He's got a house ready to go, but it's the other side of town. I think he was planning on not living in apartments anymore anyway."

Jounouchi sighs, folding his arms behind his head as he leans back in his seat. "I don't get why he just doesn't move in with one of us. I mean, obviously not Anzu and Kaiba and me, but Honda's place has a spare room and I know your grandpa and your mom wouldn't mind if he lived with you."

"I know, I wish he'd tell us too but it's a miracle he still lets me know where he lives now. If we push it he might not say anything next time. I don't want him to just disappear..." Yugi lets his head flop over his crossed arms on the desk, looking miserable. It matches the weather.

"He could move in with us. I wouldn't mind. "

Yugi and Jounouchi both jump at Seto's voice, like they have forgotten he is there. That's a first. "It's not like I don't have room," he continues. Then he lets a little glare slink into his face and Jounouchi has the decency to look at least a little bit abashed. "At least he'd have _permission._ "

Yugi chuckles at his friend, though his smile soon fades. "I don't think it's taking up space that he's worried about. I know he's worried about people coming after him because of the other Bakura, and us too by proximity, but that can't be all there is to it..."

Anzu and Honda return, the conversation quickly becoming more lighthearted and turns to things like who has the grossest drink that day (Anzu, without a doubt. Aloe juice has bits, who wants that?). Though the cloud seems to lift for the most part, Yugi remains a little melancholy for the rest of the day.

* * *

 Seto is awake at 3am again, only this time it's not because of a nightmare turned memory. Someone just barely passing for lower management on the ladder has decided to run off and start their own company, and has ran off with a decent chunk of average employees easily swayed by the passionate underdog rising up against the heartless corporate machine.

They'll be back begging to be rehired within a month, they always do. He still wants to double check that all their ID cards are deactivated and all their passwords changed, not to mention shuffle all the related departments to cover the loss - a lot of interns are going to earn themselves a lot of overtime. The last thing he needs is a pathetic attempt at espionage; cleaning up the failures is as big a chore as countering the successes, if not bigger.

His phone rings. The number is unfamiliar, but he has a hunch who it might be. There aren't many people who know his personal number.

"Good evening Seto!"

"It's more accurate to say morning, don't you think?"

"It is?" He hears Ryou shuffling like he's messing with his sleeve, then a sharp gasp.

"Oh no, did I wake you up? I completely lost track of the time, I'm sorry! I was just wondering how your first day back was..."

"You didn't, relax. It was fine. I've got paperwork up to my ears now though and if you haven't noticed, I'm pretty tall."

He can hear Ryou snort. "Never let anyone get away with saying you don't have a sense of humor, Seto."

"I don't."

He becomes aware of the sound of rushing water in the distance, too much to just be runoff in the drains. The rain is hammering over whatever is above Ryou's head.

"Ryou," he asks carefully, "Are you outside or something? Yugi mentioned you moved, does your new place have a balcony?"

He doesn't want to think about all the reasons Ryou could be out in the streets at this time of night, apparently by a raging river at that. He can't think of any that don't leave him twitching to call a car to go wherever Ryou is.

"I'm at the bus stop. There's a twenty four hour line around here, it should drop me off at the end of my street. It's a pity about the weather, but that's par for the course this time of year."

Oh. That works. Maybe he's let Yugi's jitters from school get to him after all. Jumping to the worst possible conclusion isn't something Seto usually does, as a rule.

"The one by the red bridge?"

"Indeed; you've been there?"

"I watched Yugi duel there once. He defeated a mime and for whatever reason, the guy had Osiris on him."

"That must've been quite the exciting duel!"

Kaiba chuckles a little to himself at the memory. "If I hadn't shown up, it wouldn't have been. What were you doing around there anyway?"

It takes Ryou far too long to answer and Seto has dealt with enough shady businessmen to spot a liar when he sees one.

"Nothing important."

It pisses him off, more than he thought it would, to hear Ryou so blatantly lie to him. He's not someone who needs to be coddled with false platitudes, especially not ones so obvious. If it's occult business Seto thinks he's already proven he can handle it. Anything else, well, he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it.

"It's three in the morning and raining. It must've been pretty damn important."

"It was at the time. Now it's over and it's not."

Oh, _there_ it is. That slightly clipped tone that he had when Seto first called him, or when they'd spoken after his nightmare. He deems it Ryou's 'I'm too polite to say so myself, but kindly fuck off' voice and is quietly proud that his own variation sounds far more authoritative. He's a little surprised that Ryou even has such a voice, but then again living with someone like the Ring spirit for so long must have made him a master of passive-aggression for the sake of his own survival.

"You're going home?"

"I am."

"Call me back when you get there. I'm not done with you just yet."

"Alright."

* * *

 As promised, Ryou does call about half an hour later and Seto lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding when the now familiar number flashes on the screen. He accepts the call and doesn't give Ryou the chance to say anything.

"Your friends are worried about you."

"I know," Ryou murmurs. The Tone is gone, replaced by something Seto can't quite name. Ryou sighs and Seto can't help but join in. His chair creaks as he sits back in it.

"If you know, then stop doing whatever it is that you're doing."

Ryou sounds stern when he replies this time. "I can't."

Not won't. Can't. Implying he doesn't have a choice in the matter, or at least doesn't think he does. That makes things more difficult.

"I'm correct in assuming it's an occult thing?"

"You are, though it's more like occult _things_."

"Then let them know what's going on. Yugi's no stranger to magic and mysterious happenings right? At least get him involved."

"I don't _want_ Yugi getting involved, much less the others. It's for the best; they've had enough to deal with when it comes to ghosts and demons already."

Seto bites back a harsh ' _And you haven't?_ '. He's never liked dealing with martyrs, especially the ones that aren't just all talk for the sake of their egos. Yugi told him about what Ryou almost did to himself back when they first met, when he destroyed his own soul to protect them and it was only a quirk of RPG mechanics and shadow magic working together that allowed him to survive. Seto doesn't want to find out what Ryou would do to himself now.

Besides, he doesn't know Ryou well enough to say things like that. He also doesn't know if Ryou will take offense to him knowing about the spirit's actions from Yugi rather than from him. Seto knows he wouldn't want Yugi or the others telling anyone about the time Seto's heart shattered without his consent first.

Ryou seems to come to a decision.

"I'll tell _you_ what's going on, but you have to promise you won't say a word about this to Yugi and the others."

"Fine."

"Promise me, I want your word."

He gets the distinct impression that Ryou has some sort of ritual drawn up on the other end of the line. "I won't tell them anything, I promise."

Ryou takes a deep breath, exhales, then another and the words tumble from him like a burst dam.

"When the Millennium Puzzle was first assembled, it sort of... I don't know how to explain it. It was like it scared off all the local supernatural phenomena in the surrounding area, and there was a LOT of local phenomena. Ghosts, demons, spirits, you name it and Domino had it. Atem's soul was very powerful in his own right, but the dark intelligence and the souls contained within the Puzzle itself were probably the main cause.

Originally, it only really affected wherever Yugi was, but once the other Items came into Domino, like my Ring or Malik's Rod, the effect began to expand until it enveloped the entire city. These phenomena were all displaced and angered, from the lowliest sprite all the way up to demigods, but they couldn't do anything about it.

Now though, the Items are gone. The intelligence within them, all the souls bound to the gold - poof! The moment the dark intelligence was destroyed, the Items cleansed of the trapped souls and Atem's spirit moved on, that effect vanished. As far as the displaced phenomena were concerned, Domino was now empty and they could move back in again, though they were still angry that they'd had to move in the first place.

New spirits and ghosts appear all the time however, ones that were born within the magic the older spirits couldn't take and therefore didn't mind it in the slightest, while wandering demigods searching for their own place to stay noticed all the free space before the older ones did and moved in, a lot of them to places where they shouldn't be. The phenomena who were originally displaced are now finding rivals and enemies where they once lived freely, and they will fight for their homes. On top of that, you've got some spirits just taking advantage of the chaos to cause trouble."

It's Seto's turn to take a while to respond, because that's a lot to take in at this hour. He mulls it over in his mind, trying to find the most efficient way to make it click.

"So in short, it's a spiritual clusterfuck and you're stuck playing the janitor."

Ryou laughs. "Pretty much!"

He's glad Ryou can find some humor in it, because he's struggling to. "That's a lot of work."

"It's fine; besides, I'm not doing this all by myself. You know those girls who follow me around at school all the time?"

There's something in Ryou's voice that suggests he has no idea _why_ they do that and Seto wonders how Ryou can know so much about things most people don't believe even exist and yet be so ignorant about himself. Seto's not blind and he wagers the rest of the class isn't either. He's seen Yugi staring at Ryou more than once, especially during PE and he vaguely remembers Malik doing the same back in Egypt, though the look of the latter seemed a little more weighted.

"I'm aware of them."

"They've been helping me out - once you know what to look for, finding things out of the ordinary is easy. Like tonight, Yumi spotted a kappa attacking the supports of that bridge while she was out for dinner with her family. It's harder than you'd think to find a store open at this hour that sells fresh cucumbers, but I managed to bribe him into leaving the bridge and that river alone eventually. That's why I was out so late - I had to give him directions to a river that wasn't built up and the closest is a long way away from Domino. It was tough work convincing him."

Seto struggles to remember which one of Ryou's little gaggle of admirers Yumi is (big lips and a horrifically unflattering bowl cut come to mind), because it's better than thinking about Ryou politely evicting a goddamn kappa and he's not quite ready to believe that all these mythical creatures aren't mythical in the slightest just yet. His discomfort is entirely arbitrary, he knows it, but he just can't help it. He shouldn't have this much trouble accepting that things like kappa exist when he was possessed by a ghost.

He decides to change the subject and it seems that Ryou is happy to join him, not missing a beat despite the abruptness.

"You weren't in school because you were moving, right? Yugi mentioned it."

"Yeah. It's not as big as that apartment was, but it's an actual house so I don't have to worry so much about my neighbors or anyone below and above me anymore. It's nice, not too far from school if I take a few side roads."

"I take it I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Hopefully. Good night, Seto."

"'Night."

Yugi is wrong, Seto decides as he hangs up. Pushing Ryou is exactly the right thing to do, because he's learned more about him in a single conversation than he wagers Yugi has in all the time they've known each other. Though it's probably not intentional, Yugi doesn't seem to think that Ryou is strong enough to handle confrontation, like he'll shatter at the slightest touch. But, if he was so easily broken, he probably wouldn't have been chosen by the Ring in the first place. He wouldn't have survived under the weight of someone so vicious if he wasn't a little vicious himself.

Then again, Ryou doesn't seem to have much faith in Yugi and the others either. He's being too considerate and it's looping back into selfishness. Seto's sure that Yugi and the others won't like finding out that Ryou trusts those random fan girls of his with the spiritual side of his life more than he does them, even if it's not about trust from Ryou's point of view. He wants to protect them and they want to protect him, but neither is prepared to let the other do it.

Forget the spiritual war, the real clusterfuck is and always has been friendship. It's not quite as vindicating a thought as he would like.

They're all idiots, Seto decides, but he doesn't want to get involved in the messy tangle of their mutual misconceptions. That's something they'll have to work out for themselves.


	3. Shinen

It's another hideous day, so much so that the security guards refuse to let Anzu and Jounouchi make their own ways to school, leading to an awkwardly quiet ride for the three of them in the car. The driver looks at them sternly through the rear view mirror, perhaps sterner than usual and for allegedly good reason, according to Mokuba AND Isono.

Seto is effectively grounded - about as close as you can get to grounding a CEO, anyway. By the entirety of Kaiba Corporation. Mokuba was decidedly unimpressed with his late night jaunt to the office, enough so that in the time it took for Seto to eat his breakfast and get dressed for school, he'd rallied Seto's more intimidating secretaries and loyal office workers into forming a conspiracy of paperwork that has left no gaps for Seto to 'interfere' with. He's proud of his baby brother. He would most likely lose if they ever met as competitors - Seto has learned from the masters and Mokuba has in turn learned from him.

Once school ends, they won't be able to stop him from stalking around the Research and Development department at the very least. Seto's not one for sitting idle and if he can't snatch paperwork from someone he'll just have to get even more involved with the creative side of Kaiba Corp. There are always new models to code and new advances in technology that mean even MORE models to code to bring them up to his standards. Even the Duel Disks are due a software upgrade to allow for Solid Vision to take the lighting of the environment around them into account for even more accurate renders, for example.

He briefly considers checking in on the employees (or, 'Illusionists' as they like to call themselves) assimilated from the Japanese branch of Industrial Illusions after the death of Pegasus, although he doesn't particularly relish the thought. Last time he ventured into the turpentine saturated depths of their department, every single flat surface was a mess of concept sketches and oil color swatches. The time before that, he'd walked in on an argument about exactly how much fluff was too much on a concept piece for Toon Watapon that lasted for hours and divided the whole floor down the middle - literally. There was a chalk line and everything. Pegasus had certainly known how to pick 'em, because they continued designing beautiful cards even without his guidance. Eccentrics know their own.

Speaking of eccentrics, as promised Ryou is in school. He's all smiles as Yugi practically tackles him as a greeting, buzzing with questions about his new place and if Seto hadn't been the one speaking to him and near black bags weren't under both their eyes, he would've never believed that Ryou had been awake at such an unsociable hour. Surely being that chipper on less than four hours of sleep is illegal, though that assumes he even slept.

Seto considers joining in the conversation, if only to be nosy, but suddenly wonders if calling him 'Ryou' is a little too much, too soon - the others still call him Bakura, after all. He finds that a little odd, on reflection. Ryou calls Yugi and Anzu by their first names after all. Ryou makes the choice for him by greeting him with a warm "Good morning, Kaiba!" and he nods back. Only over the phone then. Only Mokuba calls him Seto in public after all. If Ryou started, it would probably draw more attention to the both of them that neither would enjoy.

* * *

 Otogi is in their classroom today, which is odd considering his class is several doors down. He's made a bet with Honda to see how long he can sit in on their lessons before anyone notices. It's mid-afternoon and Seto is mildly curious about what he stands to win as Honda glares at the clock.

Thunder ripples across the sky, the windows rattle in their frames and the classroom is suddenly illuminated with a flash of lightning. The storm must be right above the school and it's fierce enough for the teacher to pause his lecture and take a worried glance outside. There's an odd sensation on Seto's wrist where the garnets touch his wrist, like a tingling feeling.

The lights flicker out and it's dark enough thanks to the clouds that Seto can instantly tell who's been sneakily texting in class from the glow of their screens, as can the teacher who scowls at the offending students, though he's long since learned the pointlessness of trying to confiscate them. His presentation has vanished along with the lights and since the man is incompetent and only capable of reading what's projected onto the board, his lecture is effectively over.

They wait a minute. Two minutes. The power doesn't come back and the whispers of the bored students grow louder, not that they were very subtle in the first place.

The teacher clears his throat. "All of you, stay put - Miss Mazaki, you're in charge. I'm going to find out what the situation is. Read chapter five and take notes yourselves while I'm gone and anyone who's not in here when I get back..."

Once the door closes behind him, almost everyone is out of their seats and turning to their neighbors, or pulling out their phones again. Ryou is one of them, firing off some texts by the looks of things. A few students start doodling on the chalkboard. Seto skims through chapter five and quickly decides it's not worth the effort - the teacher apparently thought copying chunks directly from it constituted a presentation - and thinks about pulling out his laptop for some quick email checking, but decides against it. He doesn't want to run out of power, so he settles for his old, well read standby, letting the classroom noise fade around him.

* * *

 It's been five minutes since the teacher left and people are getting antsy. He hears the desks behind him scrape against the floor as they get rearranged.

Yugi's not dueling for once; Ryou's done with whoever he was texting and has asked Jounouchi for a duel, which he accepts with a resigned look of terror on his face. He has no idea why Jounouchi seems so skittish about dueling him. They're just cards, even if Ryou _can_ make them materialize. The artwork isn't even that scary - Ryou's cards are relatively tame compared to some of the cards Seto has had to veto. Sometimes the Illusionists get a little... avant-garde.

They're neck and neck, the defeat of Ryou's Goblin Zombie allowing him to summon a Zombie Mammoth, which gets a formidable buff from his existing Wasteland. Jounouchi plays the old standby of Baby Dragon and the Time Wizard and the duel grinds to a halt as apparently everyone used up all their spare change at lunch, so there's no coin to flip.

One boy gets bored of watching the duel. He loudly proclaims that he's going to the bathroom, in perhaps the least subtle invitation for a smoke break Seto's ever heard. A few of his friends join him, but when he tries the door, it doesn't open. He blinks, confused, then tries again. The boy's friends all tug at the handle and it doesn't budge an inch. Honda asks around; nobody heard the door lock. Nobody can hear anything outside, actually. Not the rain on the windows even though they can see it, not the other classes being taught or being similarly rowdy in the darkness. Seto takes out his phone and quietly sighs in relief that he still has a signal. If anything happens he can still reach Mokuba.

He watches as Anzu tries to open the window. It doesn't budge. Someone laughs uneasily, jokes that the teacher must know how terrible his lecture is if he didn't want everyone to escape. It doesn't help.

Ryou reaches into his bag and pulls out his phone again, tapping away at the screen. A few moments later, a text arrives for Seto.

_Remember what I said to you last night? - R_

_Of course._

How could he forget? He might still be in the slightest bit of denial, perhaps, but he couldn't forget.

_I think we've got a live one. The fire code means all the doors and windows should be unlockable from the inside without a key. - R_

So a ghost or ghoul or some otherworldly creature has trapped them in the classroom. Or he has grounds to sue the school for negligence. Either way, it's marginally more interesting than the lecture.

_Are we in danger?_

_Probably not. I'm more worried about the teachers, to be honest. - R_

_Why?_

_If it was just a poltergeist or something pulling a joke, it wouldn't care about splitting us up. There's no point. - R_

The brief image of some nature documentary Mokuba had watched flashed into his mind, of a wolf pack picking off a straggler from the herd. Wait...

_Teacher/s/?_

_Yes. We're not the only classroom hit. Terumi and Natsumi's teacher is gone too, and there could be more. Yumi's off sick though, so I don't know about her class. The team's one short :( - R_

Seto considers the unspoken offer. He had the vague memory of Yumi and the kappas from the night before but he has no idea who either Natsumi or Terumi are. He barely interacts with people who consider him a friend, after all, and these two are complete strangers. On the other hand, he has the image of Mokuba trapped in his own classroom (even if it's nowhere near Domino High and there's no way the same haunting could take place at the same time) in his mind and if Ryou knows a way for Seto to help stop it, he'll do it a thousand times over. On the _other_ other hand, he has a vague feeling that once he takes this step, there's no going back. Like he's standing over an abyss and nothing but endless blue awaits him at the bottom.

He makes up his mind and nods - he's never feared the unknown before, so why should he even consider giving it the time of day now?

Ryou's face lights up and be beckons him over quietly. Honda looks at him when he moves to stand beside Ryou, a little confusion on his face, though not for long and he soon turns back to conversing with Jounouchi. Ryou scribbles something on a piece of paper, tears the page out of his notepad and pushes it into Seto's hand. There's a symbol drawn on it that Seto has a vague memory of seeing before, like a stylized eye, but before Seto can ask what it is, Ryou leans over and taps the Time Wizard card three times.

Everything _stops._ Jounouchi is frozen mid-sentence, a pencil rolling off someone's desk hangs in mid-air. The classroom is completely silent except for Seto's slightly rapid breathing and an incessant ticking.

Ryou stares at Seto, his face unreadable. Seto can only blink back at him, because he's just watched someone stop time using a trading card and that's not really something you see every day. He wonders if he's just fallen asleep in class and the teacher's fist is going to come crashing down on the back of his head any time now.

"Seto? Are you okay?"

He manages to tear his gaze away from the rest of the classroom to look at Ryou. He's jittery. Skittish, a far cry from the confident exorcist who confronted Gozaburo. Like he's afraid of how Seto's going to react. They're in the same boat; Seto doesn't know how to react either. The paper with the eye on it is crumpled in his hand.

"Give me a second."

"S-sure! No problem! You, uh... You relax and I can start working on the door in the meantime!"

Ryou dashes over to the door and examines the hinges, pulling out strips of paper from his satchel, along with a fine paintbrush and black ink - always prepared, apparently. He scribbles runes and seals all over them, then licks the backs and slaps them on the hinges of the door. There's an odd crackle and the faintest hint of smoke as the paper strips burn away to nothing, but when Ryou tries the door again, it opens as easily at it always had. Maybe even a little better, it always gets stuck about halfway anyway.

"I need to get the same seal you have on Natsumi and Terumi so they can move, they're in Otogi's class. That's a few doors from here, but I can't predict what we might run into once we hit the hallway. I might not be able to..."

He turns away from Seto then. He stands rigid in the doorway. "You can still back out now, if you like. All you need to do is tear up that piece of paper or hand it back to me and you'll unfreeze with everyone else. It'll be like you blinked."

It occurs to Seto after a few minutes that Ryou is waiting for him to agree.

"I can handle it."

* * *

 The hallway is quiet, almost as if the two of them are merely sneaking out in the middle of class. He almost expects to be busted by a hall monitor or something. Nothing jumps out at them as they go to the other classroom, which bugs Seto. You'd think something that went to all the trouble of trapping the students would notice when some of them escaped, though perhaps it's caught in time too. Do supernatural things operate on the same level as something as natural as time?

Ryou does the same trick with their door. Otogi's classroom is noticeably more in order than Seto's - most of the students actually had their textbooks open, and were hunched over them writing dutifully, or at least they had been. Ryou stops in front of two girls who are hiding their phones instead. They must be Terumi and Natsumi. Ryou draws the same symbol for them on paper and presses it onto their frozen palms.

They unfreeze with a start, looking around warily. Then they see Ryou. The brunette jumps up and tackles Ryou, hanging off his neck with a giggle, while the blonde holds back and her eyes are sharp as she looks Seto up and down.

"Why's he here?"

Ryou eventually manages to dislodge his assailant, who pouts as she sits on her desk. The brunette interrupts Ryou. "Isn't it obvious Natsu? Domino's most handsome devil is filling in for Yuyu!"

Seto's brain short circuits at that. _Handsome devil_. Is that _really_ what she thinks of him? Do other people think like that?

"But how does he _know_?"

Ryou darts in before the girl - presumably Terumi - can interrupt him again. "Because I told him."

Natsumi scowls at Ryou. "You said yourself that you didn't want anyone else involved."

Ryou shrugs. "Kaiba's an exception."

"Why?"

"That's for him and _only_ him to know."

The Tone again, and evidently Natsumi's heard the Tone before too, because she looks away and doesn't ask him anything else. There's an awkward silence that only seems awkward for him and Natsumi, since Terumi is happy to help Ryou as he searches his satchel, finally pulling out a map of the school. Terumi quickly sketches a few more rough copies and hands them out to everyone, while Ryou goes over the plan.

"Okay, I think we should split in two to cover more ground - so long as time is still stopped, we're safe. Don't touch anyone or anything you see or they'll be unfrozen for as long as you touch them, and don't try to turn the power back on. If you find anything out of the ordinary, make a note of where and we'll meet up here again in... Well, try your best to keep count of ten minutes. Remember, don't touch _anything_."

Now this is more like what Seto likes to see. Authoritative, confident... It's the voice of someone who took on Gozaburo Kaiba and won.

Terumi perks up at the idea of splitting up, immediately latching on Ryou's arm. "Me! I'm with you!"

Ryou shrugs, the best he can anyway. "Natsumi and Kaiba then?"

Kaiba nods, then turns to Natsumi. She's staring out the window and speaks without looking at them.

"... Sure."

What on earth is her problem? Seto knows he's not the only one confused. Terumi pouts while Ryou frowns. Maybe she's possessed and Seto must be subconsciously more comfortable with all this than he thinks because the thought is entirely plausible.

They split up after Ryou checks the hallway again - evidently he has the same concerns that Seto does about the extent of the Time Wizard's abilities. The increasingly distant chatter of Ryou and Terumi only highlights the quiet that now chills him and Natsumi.

Roughly five minutes pass. Seto's made a few marks on the page, but that's only when Natsumi picks them out in the first place. Things that Seto doesn't notice at all, like a pair of two left shoes in the shoe lockers by the school entrance, or one of the signs on the noticeboard written entirely backwards. They all seem kinda small and ultimately harmless and Seto is pretty sure they're not just dealing with one spirit. Perhaps some straggler picked up on the larger spirit moving in on the school and decided to have some fun.

Natsumi grows edgier and snippier with each thing she has to point out, like she cannot believe how much Seto is missing.

"I expected better from you, Kaiba. Considering Bakura gave you special treatment and all, I figured you'd have _some_ experience."

She's brave, braver than most. She'd be popular with the secretaries back at Kaiba Corp.; every single one of them was hired on the basis that they weren't intimidated by him at all. As it is, Seto's a little too distracted by the increasingly creepy halls of the school to be offended.

"He didn't give me special treatment. He asked if I wanted to come along to fill Yumi's place, that's all. I'm convenient."

Natsumi gives him a glare suggesting he's anything but, her eyebrows furrowing as whatever anger's been building up these last five minutes suddenly bursts out of her with a snarl.

"It's bad enough when someone as cute as Bakura's around, but you too? She's never going to even _look_ at me!"

Natsumi slaps her hands in front of her mouth as her outburst echoes, her face paling and Seto doesn't figure out what she just admitted until she bolts, fleeing down the hallway.

Oh.

_Oh._

Seto reconsiders his earlier thoughts on friendship. Love is the ultimate clusterfuck, especially if it's apparently unrequited. He chases after her, partially because the idea that he's going to mock her or that he might reveal her secret isn't something he wants her to torment herself with - he's the first to admit he can be a jerk, but he's not _that_ kind of jerk - and also because the hallway is a whole lot darker and colder when he's the only one in it.


	4. Kagari no Gyou

Here's where the suicide warning kicks in.

* * *

Natsumi is a much faster runner than she looks, easily lost in the school's labyrinthine walls. It's only by chance that he finally manages to catch up, spotting her frozen next to some lockers that overlook the hallway. Before he can say anything she whips around and slaps her hand over his mouth. He's outraged until he notices the naked fear on her face as she immediately turns her head back, straining to see around the corner. Her hand trembles on his face, and he pushes it off to walk past and see what on earth has her so worked up.

She drags him back by the collar and Natsumi is also far stronger than she looks because she damn near slams him into the lockers. But not before he catches a glimpse of what was lurking just beyond the corner. What surely must have caught a glimpse of him.

It's a head. A giant head with the mottled grey skin of a corpse, bloodshot eyes rolled back and pale dry lips spread in a lip splitting grin enough that Seto can see gums. Thick black hair wraps around her face, tangles in her teeth and the dangling light fixtures, spreading out and choking almost the entire hallway. It's matted and the air is thick with a stench that reminds Seto of the morgue where they took Gozaburo. One strand is so close that Seto can almost reach out and touch it. Not that he wants to by any means.

The head seems to stutter and shudder like a glitching duel disk losing frames and Seto realizes the time magic is wavering around it. He was right before - nothing so supernatural can be constrained by time for long.

It takes Seto a few painstakingly slow moments to recognize the rising hysteria in his chest; the phrase 'laughing in the face of danger' has been wildly misinterpreted as bravery, he decides. He wants to laugh and scream at the same time because it's a giant head in the hallway but it's also a _giant_ _head_ in the _hallway_ but if it breaks free of the time magic he's _dead_ and so is Natsumi, and probably Ryou and Terumi too.

By the looks of things, he's not the only one thinking that. Natsumi grabs his arm and they both flee without looking back, back past the way they came to their classroom. They've beaten Ryou and Terumi, if they haven't already had a run in with whatever that thing is.

Natsumi is pale, shaking as she slams the door shut behind them. She staggers over to the refuse bin and Seto turns away to give her some privacy. She dry heaves a few times, then manages to make it over to her desk and pulls a bottle of water out from her bag. She downs the whole thing in one gulp and stutters as she speaks, the words tumbling from her.

"That's Mei Watanabe, I remember her - she was a senior, right about to graduate. She hung herself on the roof after confessing her love to a teacher a year ago. Obviously he turned her down, but he still got fired anyway once other students found out and the rumor mill got going."

Natsumi closes her eyes. Seto leans against her desk.

"She wrote a suicide note, emailed it to everyone in the school right before she did it... Said she blamed the senior faculty for tearing them apart, but not him. I think he ended up moving to a different country altogether afterwards."

Natsumi turns her head from Seto, sliding down the wall to hug her knees. The hair covered where Watanabe's neck would've been and Seto wants to tell her to stop because he has a pretty good idea of what's coming next. But the words don't come.

"She used a power cable and tied it to to the railing. When she jumped over the edge..."

He vaguely remembers the incident; it closed the school down for almost a week while the police investigated. He'd barely paid attention at the time - in fact, the break had been useful since he'd had a business conference and tour in Taipei to go to and this meant he wouldn't have to catch up with any missed schoolwork.

Now he just feels sick.

* * *

 Seto and Natsumi wait in silence. Seto keeps track of a minute passing in his head, a talent born from many years of meetings, and it's another ten before he can hear Ryou and Terumi's footsteps approaching. Ryou walks in first, looking a little paler than usual but still pleased with himself, and Terumi doesn't seem any different so they mustn't have ran into Watanabe.

"Hey guys! We caught a couple of little trouble-making sprites, no harm done aside from a few pranks. I don't think they're the main problem, but..." He trails off, finally noticing the atmosphere in the classroom. Terumi takes one look at Natsumi and abandons them without a word to sit beside her, hugging her. He tunes out her quiet muttering.

The little paper box Ryou sets down on the desk doesn't look like much to Seto, especially with the yellow smiley face stickers slapped all over the lid, but if it works it works. Ryou turns back to Seto, concern all over his face as he glances over at the two. "What did you find?"

"An _onryō,_ and a pretty big one. She's stopped in time but I don't know how long for. Did you ever hear anything about Mei Watanabe?"

Ryou thinks to himself for a moment. Then Seto can practically see the 'ah-HA!' in his eyes. "She killed herself a year today, right? Figures, I should've seen this coming. I don't know much more than that though - where'd she die?"

It rankles Seto, the way he speaks so casually _._ It's the same way he spoke to Seto back when they were still figuring out what was wrong with Mokuba, or rather him, but this time doesn't feel as reassuring as it does dismissive. But perhaps he doesn't have the the right to complain about Ryou, considering he didn't really care about Mei Watanabe at all before today either. Maybe this is just because this is the first time for Seto, whereas who knows how many people like Watanabe Ryou has had to deal with.

But he does know that Watanabe deserves more than being treated like a quest's flavor text.

"On the roof."

Terumi speaks up from her corner with Natsumi, who doesn't look quite so haunted now. "Maybe that's where the teachers are!"

Ryou nods. "That's got to be why all the power cables were gone in the janitor's closet."

The box buzzes suddenly, like it's full of cicadas, almost enough to fall off the desk. Ryou catches it just before, putting it his ear for a moment. He frowns. "Kaiba, pass me some paper."

Ryou rolls the paper into a cone, using it like an amplifier. "That's better. Can you guys repeat that please, but a little slower?"

The box buzzes a few more times. Seto can't hear a word of it, but Ryou seems to understand whatever is being said. "Got it, thank you for the help."

He puts the box back down though it continues to quietly hum. "They said the _onryō_ isn't liked by the other spirits at all; apparently they've been hiding in the gym ever since the manifestation. It's a powerful one too, so they said they would keep out of the way while we dealt with it."

"You trust them not to interfere?"

"They're pranksters, not killers. They're born from the thoughts of bored students for the most part, nothing too malicious. There's no reason for them to lie anyway since they're safer in this box than out here -"

Ryou is interrupted by a howling scream that echoes through the school. The four fall dead silent, as does the box. It's Watanabe, it has to be.

Natsumi stands up suddenly and Seto would've never known about her breakdown if he hadn't witnessed it, because she's all business now. "She broke through the time magic!"

"Then she's on her way to the roof! We have to block her off!" Ryou pulls the lid off the box and three small dashes of near blinding light zip out, circling him. Once Seto blinks away the stars in his vision, they almost look like little hummingbirds with human faces and arms. A second scream, one much closer, has them scurrying into his hair, though one emerges soon after and clings to his ear like an earpiece, or an absurdly gaudy earring.

Ryou grabs Seto's hand, then Terumi's. She in turn takes Natsumi's hand and Seto knows the only one who doesn't see her blush is Terumi herself, since she's gone back to watching the sprite things as Ryou says... something. It's almost understandable, the way Old English is, but also not. He doesn't get the chance to see if Ryou's forehead starts to glow or not because there's a sharp flash, and suddenly the four are no longer in the classroom. Seto manages to keep his balance, just barely.

The stairwell to the roof is right behind them. In the distance, maybe only a few minutes away, Seto picks up the sound of something scraping its way through the hallways, a low gurgling moan every so often.

Ryou's already gotten to work, pouring a small bag of salt across the stairwell. Then he tosses Natsumi and Terumi their own bags. Seto is pushed out of the way by Natsumi as the three of them draw what kind of looks like the same circle formation Seto was in back when Gozaburo possessed him, but much smaller. Terumi pulls up a compass on her phone and directs them around.

"Kaiba, take the North corner. Stand over there... a little more left. Perfect, don't you move a muscle!"

With a little more cajoling, the four end up in presumably the right places. Just in time too, as before Ryou or Terumi can give any more instructions, Watanabe appears.

She's no less grotesque in motion, her hair loosely curling around door handles and light fixtures to pull herself through the hallway. Her eyes dart around rapidly, until she spots them.

Then she's right _there,_ less than an inch away from Seto's face. He can see his own face reflected in her cloudy pupil and he doesn't have time to recognize the brand new expression he's making before Watanabe tries to get closer.

Then the salt barrier kicks in, and Watanabe's skin sizzles and _cracks_ and she retreats, screeching. Tears flow down her cheeks and her face twists from that awful smile to a mournful, almost contrite grimace. Her hair rattles everything she's gripped, the echoing hallway transforming it into a hellish cacophony.

That same confidence Ryou had when he destroyed Gozaburo makes a long overdue appearance, finally - even Natsumi and Terumi look scared out of their wits. "Miss Watanabe, can you hear me?"

She stills completely, then her hair completely slackens, falling to the ground in a thick heap. Where it hits the salt layer it ignites though it doesn't spread, filling the hallway with the stench of burnt hair. Ryou continues regardless of the smoke, his voice low and quiet, while Seto tries not to gag.

"That's your name, remember? You're not where you want to be - try to remember where you were before today."

Her eyes lock on Ryou, a few bangs falling across her face. The confusion on her face is frighteningly human. She's still crying.

"You were far away from here, weren't you? It's okay. You're not in trouble for leaving, I promise, but you need to get back before you get trapped here forever. You don't want to be stuck in school for eternity, do you?"

She blinks, her eyes flickering clear into a startling, beautiful brown. The hallway is illuminated in a dazzling flash of white and Seto just barely stays upright as an immense gust of frigid air pummels him. As soon as it appears the gust is gone. Watanabe with it.

* * *

 As Terumi first thought, the lost teachers are all on the roof. They've all hopped over the small railing that circles the roof, but evidently Watanabe was unaware of the safety fence beyond the railing as they're all pressed up against it in their possessed stupor. Each one has a power cable knotted around their necks, the end tied to the railing. The cable between them and the rail is taut, but none of their necks look bruised so they aren't choking - yet. Their faces are all locked in serene calm, eyes shut and Seto shudders as he realizes this must've been how Watanabe looked as she jumped.

The rain is frozen around them, almost beautiful in its eeriness and Seto surreptitiously snaps a few pictures with his cell phone, careful to keep the teachers and their group out of the shots. With every movement the drops come into contact with their clothes and unfreeze. It doesn't take long for everyone to become soaked through. It's cold too, and Seto shivers. Ryou ends up worse off than the others as he runs around and inspects all the teachers, his hair clinging to his face.

"I was afraid this might happen," Ryou says after a while, sighing heavily. "There's no way to tell if they're not possessed anymore without ending the time spell and obviously we can't be here for that. Hopefully once time starts again, they'll have all come to their senses. Let's make sure the fence isn't going to collapse at least, god knows when they last sent the maintenance guys around..."

He doesn't say what will happen if they don't come back around.

The fence is stable. As Ryou makes one last sweep of the roof top Natsumi and Terumi leave to clean up the hallway and dry off, so only Seto is there when Ryou suddenly stumbles. He catches himself just barely, clinging to the rail with white knuckles, but he's hunched over and leans his forehead against the cool metal for a few moments before continuing.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just not used to using someone else's cards. They don't like me using them either..."

Ryou has no idea, but he's just confirmed something Seto has been quietly wondering for a while, ever since he saw Dark Necrofear. He'd wondered if this was something only Ryou, or perhaps the other Millennium Item holders, could do, but it's entirely possible that _anyone_ could theoretically do it. All you need to learn is how, because the magic is already latent within the cards, not brought out by any ability of Ryou's.

Perhaps one day, he can learn the trick. For now, he settles for keeping an eye on Ryou as they go down the stairs to dry their own clothes. He could theoretically explain away tiredness, but there's no way he could do the same if Ryou falls and breaks his neck.

* * *

 It takes Seto a second to remember the electricity's still out, so the hand dryer won't be of any use for his sodden clothes. He resigns himself to the paper towels - hopefully nobody will notice in class. Ryou does the same. It's awkwardly quiet, aside from the sound of crinkling paper.

"How did you know she'd go to the roof?"

"It's where the _Onryō -_ "

"Watanabe."

Ryou blinks, startled for a moment before smiling a little, and stops drying his hair. "It's where Watanabe died, so her soul would have a strong attachment to that place. She wasn't quite on the same level of sentience as Gozaburo was, so it makes sense that she'd just mindlessly try to replicate her death. If she was more like him, she would've probably only possessed whoever it was who fired him. Instead, she lashed out at a category as vague as 'the people in charge' - so obviously, the teachers. You've seen how quick the turnover rate for the faculty at this school is, so it's also likely that whoever started spreading the rumor is long gone anyway."

Ryou paces the length of the bathroom on shaky legs as he speaks and Seto can't help but think he should sit down. "Some part of her soul had been at peace in the afterlife, the part of her that wanted to die in the first place, so all we had to do was sorta... tug, I guess, at the link between them. Then she could realize what she was doing, pull herself together and that's the end of the _onryō_. That's why I didn't need to summon anything to destroy her, like with Gozaburo, even though she was more dangerous."

"Gozaburo wasn't at peace?"

"Probably not. It was too personal - if he were on the same level as Watanabe... Well, he would've still possessed _you_ because you spend a lot of time in the office where he died, but he wouldn't have targeted Mokuba so specifically. Any of your employees would be in danger then."

Seto quietly welcomes the thought of that man bellowing where nobody would even care to hear, in whatever afterlife got saddled with him, as his son turned Kaiba Corp. into something respectable. Perhaps he was consumed by envy, watching Kaiba Corp. rid itself from the limits of war.

Ryou presses a few more paper towels over his hair; surely such long hair is a hindrance more than anything. Seto's never seen the appeal of growing out his own, but Mokuba's never let him take off more than an inch at a time so there must be something to it. His mother's had been just as short as his, sharply cut and even shorter than his at the back.

The silence returns, though this time it's surprisingly comfortable as they finish getting as dry as they can hope to be. When they're done, Ryou goes to open the door and Seto spots something on him.

"Hold on, that sprite thing's still on your ear." He reaches out and gently plucks the squirming creature off Ryou. The back of his hand brushes against Ryou's hair as he does it and it's nowhere near as soft as it looks, but maybe that's just from the rain and the harshness of being dried so crudely. The sprite clings to his own finger instead, the tiniest hands hes ever seen gripping tightly as it leaves a pin prick of a bite on his nail.

Then it lets go, joining the other two that are perching on the door handle and chattering away. They're gone the next time Seto looks back, and he hopes that he's not become the target for their next prank.

* * *

 They bid farewell to Natsumi and Terumi outside their classroom. Terumi rushes in to her seat, while Ryou leans against the wall with his eyes unfocused. Natsumi stops at the door, glancing back at Seto fearfully. He knows what she's asking, but like hell does he have an answer for her. He can only shrug in response, an unspoken promise to keep quiet, but it seems to be enough for her as she sighs in relief and shuts the door. He's not qualified to deal with them.

The Time Wizard is waiting for them back in their own room. It taps its clock face irritably as it hovers just above the card, the same size as its render within the duel disks. It certainly wasn't there when they left.

Ryou bows low in apology to the Wizard, and Seto follows his lead. He hasn't had to bow this low in years and his back aches when the Wizard makes an odd clicking noise and he correctly guesses that he's permitted to straighten up. Surely he's too young for that to be happening already. It watches the two of them closely, Seto in particular, as they return to their desks. Perhaps it shares its master's rivalry.

"Once I tear the paper, the Time Wizard will leave and time will start again. Are you ready?"

He wants to ask, 'Are you?', because Ryou looks dangerously close to fainting, but doesn't. He watches Ryou tear the paper instead, and a lot of things start happening at once.

The classroom is instantly filled with chattering students once more, but only for a moment before the air is filled with shrieks instead. The windows fly open with a loud bang along with the door, the raging storm outside bursting in and showering everyone with rain. Seto barely notices the convenient excuse for his damp clothes as Ryou sways dangerously in his seat, then crashes to the floor.

* * *

 There's an aquarium in the nurse's office, filled with tiny silver fish he doesn't recognize that ball into a tight shoal at being disturbed by the students. The nurse is nowhere to be seen - judging by the thundering footsteps in the hallway, she's probably gone to find them with the rest of the non-teaching staff. He wonders how long it will take for them to be found, what on earth they can possibly say to explain why they're all there.

Yugi almost looks like he's about to cry as he watches Ryou sleep. Seto ignores him. It's not his job to give Yugi emotional support outside of dueling. Seto's only good at comforting Mokuba and young children - he doesn't have a damn clue what to do with his peers.

At best, he can just... _be_ there. A presence, so the other knows they aren't alone, but that's all and he's painfully aware that that isn't enough sometimes. He's just not the type to throw an arm around someone's shoulder, like Jounouchi does to Yugi as they sit. He's more like part of the shoal, and it's the only time that he's ever happy to follow the crowd.

"I'm sure he's fine, Yugi. He looked super tired this morning, right? Moving ain't easy."

"Yeah..."

He snaps himself out of the trance of watching the aquarium when he realizes exactly why Honda's staring at him so oddly, which started right when Ryou passed out. He would've stared too, if Honda had been stood on one side of the room one second then sat down on the other side another.

Oops. For whatever reason, he hasn't said anything. So long as Seto doesn't draw attention to it, maybe Honda will chalk it up to a trick his brain played and forget about it.

An overhead speaker crackles and the harried voice of the nurse comes through. "Attention students! Please return home immediately - school will resume as normal next week. You are expected to self-study until then. All students with detention, please report to the main office to find a new date for your punishment on your return. I repeat..."

Outside, the faint blare of ambulances breaks through the sound of the rain and Seto can already hear people running through the halls.

"Long weekend, hell yeah! Yugi, want a ride home on my bike?" Honda asks. Had Seto played no part in what happened today, he might've shared some of that sentiment. The nausea he felt before returns instead. He still doesn't know if the teachers are alright and the ambulances have him on edge. But excusing himself would just draw attention, at this point.

Yugi shakes his head. "I think I'll walk Bakura home, once he wakes up. It'd be nice to see his new place."

"I'll come too - I bet he's nowhere near done unpacking all his stuff. We could help out!" Anzu says. Jounouchi nods in agreement and Honda decides to ride his bike home then take the bus over.

Then Yugi turns to Seto.

"What about you?"

It _would_ be a good idea to see Ryou's new home, just in case. Mokuba won't mind him skipping out on relaxing at home if he's being vaguely social and not sneaking into his office. He might even want to come over too, he'd still yet to really meet Ryou after everything that happened, and he'd been bugging Seto about it for a while... "I'll call a car. There's no point walking in this rain."

 


	5. Sabi no Naku Koe

The nurse returns not long after the announcement, and despite Ryou not waking up yet she orders them all out of the building and they have to dodge what feels like every paramedic in Domino rushing by before they make it outside the school gates. Ambulances choke the school's courtyard and the road outside and Honda's cheer from before vanishes.

Ryou ends up on Honda's back on the dash to get the car, the driver of which has that wonderful knack of turning up right at the best moment; the sky rumbles and he hits the accelerator just as even more rain erupts down on them. It's a tight squeeze and he's pretty sure Yugi's ended up on Jounouchi's lap, while Ryou is propped up between Anzu and Honda. Seto takes the front seat besides the driver to help with Yugi's directions.

It quickly becomes apparent that what Ryou meant by 'the other side of town' is true in only the broadest sense of the word. Seto expects something like a cheap student accommodation near the university. Not particularly nice by any means, but comfortably within the lines of inhabitable for someone living alone with a limited budget. He apparently isn't the only one who's expectations haven't been met, judging by the increasingly aghast face of the others as the car finally rolls to a stop.

What he gets is something that doesn't even look like a house, an old warehouse and small office facility right on the edge of one of Domino's few abandoned industrial estates. It looks like it hasn't been in use for decades, the land around them choked with weeds and near waist length grass growing through the neglected concrete. Maybe it's from the days before the harbor was moved to be closer to the heart of the city, left to rot in obsolescence.

His driver gives him a look as the group exits the car, and with a nod he permits the man to circle the area before joining the others crowding under what looks like an extended porch roof, just in front of the door. He changes his mind about bringing Mokuba down here - the last thing he needs is getting tetanus from all the rusted metal just scattered everywhere.

Ryou doesn't show any signs of awakening, not even when Jounouchi goes through his pockets to find a key.

"No offense to Bakura, but this kinda looks like a serial killer's lair," Honda mutters. "Is it even legal for him to live here?"

Anzu tries to be positive. "I guess it has character..."

"Sure, if you like your characters haunted!" Jounouchi shouts as he wrestles with the locked door. Then he lets out a yell of triumph as it creaks open.

Seto's not the only one who realizes that that's probably the exact reason Ryou chose this place; Yugi sighs heavily and shakes his head.

The inside is a dire improvement over the outside - he could definitely believe Ryou had passed out just from exhaustion at making the place presentable if he didn't know any better. Colorful knit rugs lie scattered across the old office carpet, probably strategic in hiding old coffee stains and tears. Red curtains and shades on the ceiling lights give everything a warm glow. There's an L-shaped couch across one corner, with a huge stack of pillows and bean bags tucked at one side, blankets strewn across both. Little knickknacks that look utterly pointless beyond decoration line most every flat surface aside from a small coffee table, though knowing what little he does of Ryou, some of them most likely have an alternative purpose.

Honda sets Ryou down carefully on the couch, laying him flat and pulling one of the blankets over him. He glances at Seto as he does so, like he's not entirely sure why he didn't stay with the driver. Or maybe he's still wondering about what happened in class.

There's a damp chill to the air despite the otherwise homey surroundings, one that Jounouchi notices as well judging by how he's eyeing the ceiling. "Man, I thought the inside would be just as bad as the outside, but this ain't the _worst_ , I guess. It's bigger than it looks too..."

He wanders off down the hallway still looking up, one that runs the entire length of the building by the looks of things. Anzu and Honda vanish to explore as well, while Yugi stays and pokes around the little objects on the shelves. Seto pulls out his phone and bites back a sigh at the pathetic signal. Must be the area - why would an abandoned facility need any sort of signal? Hopefully the driver has better luck, and Mokuba thinks to call him first before worrying about Seto. If he doesn't just assume Seto's gone straight from school to work again.

Ryou stirs eventually, blinking awake as he sits up and takes in where he is. He sharply gasps once it clicks, loud enough to catch Yugi's attention. His eyes are oddly wide, darting around and he almost looks like he's bracing himself. "Yugi? When did I...?"

Yugi settles down on the couch next to him, tucking himself tight against his side without hesitation. "We're at your place. You passed out in class, so we took you to the nurse. Then we all got told to leave, so Kaiba gave us all a ride over and we've just been poking around your new house ever since. You've been asleep that whole time, you feeling alright?"

Ryou visibly relaxes with each word, until he's leaning back on the couch.

"Yeah... Just tired. Sorry for all this trouble."

"It's no trouble! We wanted to see what your new home was like anyway."

Why Yugi feels the need to give Ryou all the details, Seto has no idea. Surely 'you passed out in class, so we took you home' would've sufficed. He almost looks like he's going to sleep again, until there's a harsh clatter of heavy plastic on tile and the murmur of Anzu scolding Honda from a room further down the hallway, one Seto assumes is the kitchen.

He moves to get up, but Yugi throws himself across Ryou to trap him with what little weight he has.

"Yugi, what are you _doing_?"

"Do you wanna help Anzu and Honda in the kitchen?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then I'm not moving!"

Ryou groans, but doesn't try to push Yugi off with any real force. He glances at Seto helplessly, but Seto just shrugs and pretends he doesn't see as he looks back at his phone. He really shouldn't be exerting himself anyway.

Seto clears his throat once Ryou gives up on his struggles. "I think I can do something about your phone line and the internet. Where's your laptop?"

"It's plugged in over there."

'Over there' is a bookshelf filled with what looks like everything but books. Small figurines of fantasy characters and a little diorama near the top fill it instead, a few of them looking startlingly familiar, depicting Yugi, Ryou and the others all in some sort of costume for their classes. The figurines are all despicably cute - the Illusionists would love miniatures like that for Toon monsters, if he doesn't get snatched up by a gashapon company first.

There's a second Yugi amongst the little group, his features a little sharper, his stance just that little bit more confident compared to the first Yugi.

Seto stares at it for far too long before remembering what he's there for. Neither Yugi or Ryou noticed his pause, thankfully. Ryou's used his captivity as an opportunity to turn the darker maroon parts of Yugi's hair into a mass of tiny braids, and Yugi has no choice but to stay put if he wants to keep Ryou off his feet.

The laptop's already on, a window showing video feeds from almost a dozen security cameras that must be hooked up all around the facility. From what he remembers of the outside, there's not a single blind spot. He mustn't want to be caught off guard by something - probably whoever it was that caused him to leave the apartments. He wonders how many times Ryou has moved before because of it.

He watches the feeds for a few moments, but doesn't spot anything out of the ordinary. It's entirely possible that Ryou's rigged up the cameras to be able to pick up on ghosts and spirits, as well as people, and it's only to Seto's untrained eye that there appears to be nothing amiss. Either way, it all seems a bit excessive. The other Bakura certainly did some damage, but surely nothing that requires this level of paranoia.

Unless it's the other Bakura he's trying to catch in the first place. But wasn't he supposed to be gone, alongside _him_ and the other Millennium Items? He closes the window of the camera feeds. It's too distracting.

He's interrupted from his task before he can even begin by the reappearance of the others, who practically pounce on Ryou when they notice he's awake, though they quickly turn their attention to Yugi's new look.

"These are coming out the first chance I get," Yugi mutters with a pout. "Don't get used to them!"

Anzu picks at one of the strands, tugging it gently and ignoring Yugi's whine of discomfort. "You're going to have some _amazing_ curls tomorrow."

Ryou doesn't seem put out by it all, more relieved that the attention is no longer on him. Maybe that's why he actually did it, and not just to punish Yugi for keeping him trapped. Ryou is far more devious than he looks if that's the case and Seto is immediately on edge at the thought. It's an uncomfortable, almost prickly feeling. It shouldn't be, because second-guessing those around him used to come as easy as breathing. His initial reaction is that he's clearly let all these idiots get too close if he doesn't _want_ to be suspicious of any of them.

His second reaction is that the first sounded a lot like Gozaburo and that he's bring ridiculous. Hell, what is he even suspicious _of_? He wouldn't want to be smothered by anyone either - only Mokuba is permitted to touch him so casually. He'd probably do the same thing, if his fingers were so inclined, although he can't think of any situation where Yugi would throw himself at him.

Yugi brushes Anzu's hand away and finally climbs off Ryou, who stays sat down. The rain's died down outside now, coloring the grey concrete that oddly bright orange that only comes in the sunshine following a storm. Apparently content that Ryou's not living in squalor and that they don't need to be as concerned as they were, the others all decide to leave. They're about to set off walking back up the road, when Seto points at the car that once again arrives at the perfect moment.

"He'll take you home and circle back around to pick me up. I have to do something about Ryou's phone and internet connection. Tell him I'll be done by the time he returns."

"You sure about being left here?" Honda asks, his own suspicion back in full force apparently. Anzu cuts him off before he can say anything else.

"We'll tell Mokuba what's up, if you like."

"If you would. Thanks."

Seto watches the car leave from the door. He briefly ponders the looks everyone had when he thanked them, then turns back to Ryou, who's still a little dazed by the looks of things.

"What do I need to do?"

Ryou jumps his question - perhaps he didn't notice Seto staying. He quickly focuses, though Seto can't ignore the slight tremor in his voice.

"The energy used for the Time Wizard will be much happier to leave me than the energy for Necrofear. I just need my coat and a few symbols... Actually, no, just the one will do. There's a jade eight on the windowsill, and the coat's in the filing cabinet."

The coat is wrapped in white paper, still thick with the scent of rosemary. The jade eight is heavy in his hands, and must've cost Ryou no small fortune to have made. When he hands the items over to Ryou, he trembles as he pulls the coat over himself, inhaling the scent with a shuddering sigh. He wonders if Ryou's in pain.

"No salt?"

"No need. There's no darkness in time, and no time in darkness."

Ryou closes his eyes as he lays down, the jade figure of eight clenched tightly in his hands. He doesn't look relaxed enough to be sleeping, so Seto busies himself by doing as he said he would - fixing Ryou's atrocious phone line and internet connection. Ryou might be awake but he probably doesn't need the distraction of talking to him while he purifies himself.

It takes him a few moments to get used to the layout of Ryou's keyboard, but eventually he's tapping away without issue. There's just enough strength in the signal to connect him to Kaibacorp. and, with a few admin commands and overrides, one of the dishes at the top of the closest tower rotates to point directly at their location. His phone immediately blows up with alerts from the technicians reporting the breach they have no idea he caused, and his fingers are a well practiced blur as he replies to all of them.

It's a few moments before he realizes Ryou is watching him text, dark brown eyes half-lidded from drowsiness peeking out from under the coat. Maybe he doesn't realize Seto can see him, because he jumps again when they make eye contact.

He looks away, then back, then away again. "Thanks. You didn't have to do that."

"It's a simple task, don't concern yourself too much."

Ryou sits up, the coat falling to his waist. "No, not just that. I meant before. You didn't have to help me with Watanabe but I-I'm glad you did."

He's been so shy ever since the others left, Seto notices, hesitant and shrinking in on himself like he's afraid of Seto shooting him down. "If you... if you want to come along the next time, just say so. It doesn't have to just be when Yumi's not there. I bet she'd like to meet you."

Shyness doesn't suit Ryou, he decides. "You're the expert, is it safe for a novice like me to come along?"

Ryou seems startled by the question, then smiles, a little like he did back at school. "I'd say so."

They fall into a surprisingly comfortable silence after that, Ryou curling back under the coat and Seto keeping an eye on the camera feeds again until his car returns. Ryou waves him off from a window as they drive away.

* * *

 Before Seto even closes the door to his bedroom, he knows he's not alone. His hand stills on the handle as the unnatural chill of the room assaults his skin, and something inside is telling him not to turn around. That said, he's not afraid. He has a hunch who's here.

"Good evening, Miss Watanabe."

The ghost doesn't answer him, perhaps she can't, but the crushing cold eases off and with it whatever was keeping him rooted to the spot fades too.

She stands motionless in the corner by the window, the top half of her chest completely obscured by shadow from the curtains. She's carrying her expressionless head in her arms like a pile of books. Thankfully she looks otherwise normal, not the corpse from before.

Well. Normal as she can be, given the circumstances. He wants to ask what she wants, but considering her limitations...

"Are you well?"

Watching the arms manipulate her head to nod is equal parts sickening and comical, but it's all he can do.

"Is there something important you need?"

Shake.

"Did you just come to say hello?"

A brief moment of hesitation, then the head is propped under one arm so she can wave with the other, her movements shy and hesitant like the younger children whenever he wanders around Kaibaland.

He waves back, the same as he does with the children, and it seems to satisfy her. She's gone the next time he blinks, no indication of if she'll be back or if Seto will never see her again. He's not entirely sure which one he prefers.

He's still for a few moments, then he walks to his bed and falls fast first onto his covers without taking off his uniform. It's really hit him now, that's there's no going back from this, although really it should've hit him the first time he saw the Blue Eyes come to life in front of his eyes, with _him_. He already failed to cast aside the past before, and he's already proven that the future is his to decide. The present isn't something he's ever had to doubt, never been such a source of uncertainty before _._

He relies too much on Ryou, he decides. His ignorance is a burden, regardless of whether or not Ryou sees him that way, and a dangerous one at that. If he's going to see just how deep this rabbit hole goes, he's not going in blind and he's certainly not going to make Ryou hold his hand the whole time.

He can only hope that Mokuba doesn't try to follow behind him.


	6. Midori no Za

Discussion of suicide warning for this chapter, relating to the events of chapter four.

* * *

 "I have some good news, sir. We're on the last few pages."

Seto thanks the lawyer and hangs up, mentally making a note to give the man and his team an extra week's holiday to make up for the hassle they've all gone through.

Even so long after his death, Pegasus had somehow managed to remain a thorn in his side. His will had been not only hidden within the depths of a seemingly endless maze in the depths of the castle, but was also encrypted with a numeric cipher. The key turned out to be episode titles for that damn rabbit cartoon that Pegasus loved. Then it was simply a question of finding each episode and taking the first or last letter from the title, a tedious task that was far too good for even his least useful employees. Not only that, but Seto already knows exactly what the will is going to say, but they have no choice but to decode it if he doesn't want a legal nightmare in the future.

Pegasus stated that Industrial Illusions should be left to 'whoever earned the privilege', along with the property rights to Duelist Kingdom and his mansions, in a video recording made at some point prior to the tournament. They'd been verbally offered to 'The King of Games' in the tape, but Yugi hadn't stopped Seto from absorbing Industrial Illusions into Kaiba Corp regardless. The property rights were still up in the air however. He wouldn't mind letting Yugi keep those - if he never saw Duelist Kingdom again, it'd be too soon. He also had more than enough mansions thanks to Gozaburo, so Yugi could keep those too.

That said, one of Pegasus' more loyal henchmen had challenged the veracity of the recording and even though the employees of Industrial Illusions were happy to be re-employed by Kaiba Corp, the man (Croquette? Crocker? He can't remember) is steadfastly refusing to hand anything that grants Seto true ownership at his discretion until the paper will corroborates. Which both of them already know it will, he's just being difficult.

The video also mentioned something else; more personal items that had first been sent to Yugi, which he had immediately given to Seto. There were no instructions for him to do so, but in his own words, it didn't feel right to keep them. Seto doesn't like to think about where they might have ended up if he hadn't.

The cards are empty and Pegasus has been dead for months but Seto's fingers still tremble when he finally touches one of them. It's a card like any other, smooth paper with the slight sturdiness offered by a plastic membrane on the inside, which protects the world's thinnest microchip and a QR code that exists in all cards to facilitate Solid Vision - how Pegasus knew the cards would one day need to be digitally compatible, he doesn't care to think about. Still easily broken with deliberate effort, as he knows all too well, but enough to handle being bashed around in someone's pocket as they go about the day. This card would be worth a fortune as a collector's item but frankly Seto doesn't want to let anyone else to even know it exists.

His soul was once _in_ this card, and so was Mokuba's. He doesn't remember much of the incident and he doesn't care to try. Pegasus defeated him, then he wakes up somewhere else and searches for Mokuba as he had been the whole time. Leaving it at that suits him just fine. He slides the cards into a secure pocket regardless. The garnets on his wrist tingle ever so slightly - perhaps a little magic still remains within them.

The security guards don't react to his sudden appearance as he approaches the simulation room, as they has been trained not to. Time wasted saluting or some other show of obedience is time not spent doing their jobs and it's the easiest way to spot infiltrators, who for some reason assume his highly trained professional guards will bow or nod at him like the office staff do as he passes.

He has something to test. The world is long overdue an upgrade to the Duel Disk that isn't just a bug fix, one that will add unprecedented life to Duel Monsters, but until today no models were ready to demonstrate what his animation team were truly capable of. Idle animations, physics, reduced clipping, animated reactions to certain cards being played together...

Truly bringing them to life, one frame at a time.

Dark Necrofear, being the most recent 'real' Duel Monster he's ever seen, is a decent candidate and the one he chose to expedite, much to the shock of his employees who all assumed he'd prioritize the Blue Eyes. Perfection doesn't need to be improved on however. The Blue Eyes was deliberately delayed in the initial round of model creation, to fully take advantage of the immense team's combined experience working on all the other monsters. The same will occur this time. That said, it's not an insult to Necrofear. Far from it - she will be the basis from which potentially thousands of other models will take their influence.

Her design is complex; a bundle of contrasting sharp and rounded edges, organic and inorganic tied together in something that looks almost undead, but isn't. Her lore titles her the Queen of all Fiend type monsters, and she is also a devoted mother (and a devourer of the souls of bastard fathers, but that isn't something that would go down so well during a meeting).

The holographic projectors hum as they warm up. He's not playing her using a Duel Disk, since her data hasn't been compressed to fit on such a small space just yet, but rather a fixed arena.

The Duel Disk will never quite live up to the capabilities of the arena, simply because it must always remain comfortably portable and just one of the drivers within the arena weighs more than a car. They're for world class level tournament use only, for when the circumstances demand a true spectacle. There's arenas like it all around the world, being built into stadiums, but this is the most advanced.

She's beautifully grotesque as she materializes, a work of art. He doesn't expect anything less. Close to the real thing, eerily so, but not quite and perhaps that works in her favor. The regularity of her idle breathing cycle is what gives it away, along with the entirely missing doll child. It's not finished yet. The frightful creature has yet to be animated at all, since it's taken far too long to convince the team assigned to her to treat it as anything other than a limp doll, especially since he had no lore on his side to back him up. He had to resort to pointing out that most of the people in the room were parents, and surely they were familiar with how a bored baby could act out.

Besides, if it was just going to be a static lump, they might as well edit the artwork to remove the child altogether and save themselves time. Since card art changes are still rather divisive and would require several days of delay as they redesigned her, it worked. For a few days, Kaiba Corp. became the world's most intimidating nursery as parents brought in their infants so the team could record their movements for reference.

Besides, knowing she's real _somewhere_ , Seto doubts that he wouldn't face repercussions from her for taking away her baby. Or Ryou, for that matter.

All things considered for what she's been tasked to do today, the model is more than meeting his standards so far as he wanders around her on the field, returning to the card dashboard to switch her from defense to attack, inputting reactions to magic, trap and enemy attacks through a computer attached to the side of it. For a moment he wonders if she recognizes him when the model's eyes meet his, but there's nothing. Her skin shimmers under the light as it waxes and wanes around them to simulate outdoor conditions, almost pearlescent.

That's another thing they're working on - taking into account real light via sensors on the top of the disk. As it is now, all monsters glow with the same artificial light no matter what, but with this they meld into their surroundings. Shadows and shafts of light will be reflected on their models. It's both a programming and hardware nightmare, especially considering the indisputable weight limit the Duel Disc is on the limit of pushing, but that's why he hires the best.

Standing back behind the dashboard after his final check, Seto's hand brushes against the pocket that holds the two soul cards. He pulls one of them out. It's still as blank as when he first picked it up - he can't tell if this was the one he was sealed in or if it's Mokuba's. He doubts either card even has valid QR codes.

It's an odd urge, but he can't resist it. He places the card face up, in attack mode and waits.

Nothing happens. He knew before he even played it that nothing would happen, but he's still disappointed, somehow. He picks up the card again, along with Necrofear, and leaves to deliver his feedback. The arena switches off behind him, as do the lights.

His garnets still tingle, but not nearly as much as when he went in.

* * *

Despite his best efforts and the exhaustion of a long day's work, Seto cannot sleep that night. It's a welcome reprieve from the echoes of Gozaburo, at the very least, but he'd rather not spend the night staring at the curtains. He can't think of anything to occupy himself with until morning.

Well, perhaps one person is still awake. Scratch that, he _knows_ one person is still awake.

"Watanabe came to see me a few days ago. Is that normal?"

"There's not really a 'normal' when it comes to ghost visits. What matters is if she hurt you, or tried to. Do you feel alright?"

Ryou sounds a little tired, though not in a 'you just woke me up' way, but that's come to be the norm as far as Seto is concerned. Maybe a little annoyed too, that Seto has waited this long to tell him.

Seto doesn't feel any different, besides the slight irritation at asking Ryou for help again only a few nights after deciding not to. Ryou has to have learned all this from someone so it stands to reason that Seto can learn from someone too, but sorting the plausible from the ridiculous has proven harder than it first seemed. He's had no luck finding anything that satisfies him, online or on paper. No one person can know everything, so learning from the same person who taught Ryou would leave them with the same gaps in their knowledge and that's just unacceptable.

"I'm fine."

He's not lying unlike the last time he was asked this question and he thinks Ryou can tell.

"Maybe you have an aura that she likes. If she stops by again, let me know?"

"Sure."

Ryou makes no move to say his goodbyes or hang up. Neither does Seto - there's something in the silence that makes him think Ryou's got something else on his mind.

"A-actually, there's something else that's been bothering me, regarding Watanabe."

And there it is.

"Something unusual?"

"Yes but... Never mind, it's late. I can't keep you up theorizing about ghosts; it's not like you have time off just because I do. It wouldn't be fair."

He's right, sort of. In lieu of school Seto's opened up his days to even more work; there's an early morning disciplinary meeting with someone from middle management who's been caught drunk at his desk twice in as many months, then another concept meeting in the afternoon for a more accessible Duel Disc that he wants to sit in on. It's specifically aimed at people who cannot hold the Disc at the required height and angle for optimal holographic projection, for whatever reason, or indeed can't hold it at all and require it to be mounted on something.

Plus he'll be taking Mokuba out to get a suit for the gala in the evening. He's growing taller every time Seto looks at him, it seems, and the one Mokuba had picked out way back then has already grown short at the wrists, much to his annoyance. It shouldn't be too hard to get the same style re-tailored to his size though.

"I've got time."

Nobody would question him taking the morning off tomorrow, should Ryou keep him up longer than expected - Isono and Fuguta might even condone it. He'll be alert for Mokuba at least, and it's not like his presence is really necessary for that first meeting. The HR rep. assigned to this incident is ex-military and he's pretty sure she knows how to kill a man as easily as she delivers written warnings. He won't miss the second meeting since it's after lunch and Mokuba won't mind if he's a little drowsy while they shop; it'll just be a handy excuse for him to drag Seto into one of Domino's cafes for a ludicrously sweet snack.

"... Okay. You already know that _onryō_ can spawn from suicide, right? And then they can inflict their own misery on someone else. That's what Watanabe did, nothing all that unusual there. What's confusing me though is the sheer scale of it. I've _never_ heard of an _onryō_ taking on more than one victim at a time, and Watanabe not only attacked more than a dozen teachers, but also shut down the entire school. She would've just possessed the one teacher, likely whoever she thought spread the rumor to the students - or whoever had taken over that teacher's position once they left - if she was a more typical case. So then, why would someone like her, an average schoolgirl by all accounts, end up becoming so powerful in death?"

He thinks back to the girl in his office. She didn't seem out of the ordinary. Besides the whole detached head thing. He repeats this to Ryou, leaving out the last part. It feels a little glib.

"Was she distressed when she came to see you at all? Like, did she try to communicate something? A lot of ghosts yet to pass on like to check in on their families, but can't figure out how to get their attention. She might've been drawn to you since you could see her, so you could do it for her."

"Not really. I couldn't tell what she was feeling, if anything."

"I see. That's a little odd too. It's incredibly rare for someone to die without any regrets at all, and someone like her should have plenty even if ultimately she wanted to die. Regret that people found out, regret that she'd hurt people who cared for her at her death, that she fell in love at all..."

Watanabe didn't seem too upset when she came to him. Cautious of him maybe, but not someone like Ryou described in the slightest.

Unless that wasn't Watanabe in the first place - he never learned what she really looked like, after all, and the monstrous _onryō_ shared little resemblance to the girl who'd been in his office. Not only that, but she appeared in the Domino uniform and even though Yugi might wear it all the time, he doubts he'd be buried or cremated in it. Surely she'd be in a shroud, or kimono or something.

Ghosts pretending to be other ghosts is something he has already been warned about. He keeps this theory to himself however. Maybe ghosts appear in what they wore most in life, or clothes they had sentimental attachment to. Maybe the ghost in school is the false Watanabe. There's too many 'maybes' for him to offer it as a suggestion, in his opinion. Besides, Ryou has probably already considered this too and come to the same conclusion.

Seto would make quite the intimidating sight as a ghost when he thinks about it, his coat billowing behind him as he towers over his target. Ryou would too, that hair of his trailing in the breeze and someone who's as pale as he is would only be paler in death.

( _Nobody_ would be scared of Yugi. Even _Yugi_ wouldn't be scared of Yugi.)

Ryou's frowning. Seto's not sure how he can tell, but there's something in the noise of fabric against fabric that suggests he's shuffling around impatiently, wherever he's sat.

"What was the teacher's name?" Seto asks eventually, since Ryou's not volunteering anything else. Maybe he's lost in thought.

He was a key part of the mystery, ignored up 'til now. Maybe it's macabre of Seto to think this way, but he can't help being curious about the man Watanabe died for.

"The one she loved? I don't know, he'd left the school way before I came there. One of the girls might know, they've all been at Domino High longer than me. I know Yumi's awake because she's in my dungeon group. Want her number? I can send it to you after we're done although I think she's going to bed after this last boss, so you might have to wait until morning. Or midday, knowing her."

He ignores that Ryou's apparently been multi-tasking for their entire conversation (playing an MMO _this_ late no less - he's definitely wasted no time in taking advantage of Kaiba Corp.'s internet speed). "Sure."

Something else occurs to him. "There's nothing out there tonight?"

"I'm not sure if it's the cold or the spirits finally starting to get bored with each other, but it was pretty quiet. I did a sweep around the tourist circuit on my bike, but I didn't find anything that could cause trouble."

Domino's tourist circuit doubles as a marathon track in the summer. No wonder Ryou sounded tired when he picked up, if that's what he's spent his evening traversing. A lot of Kaiba Corp. buildings are included as tourist attractions, such as the stadium and Kaiba Land, so Ryou must have passed them. If he'd decided to pull another all-nighter in the office, would he have noticed Ryou going by, if he'd been looking out the window at the right moment?

Ryou has to do this _every night_ , he realizes. Going around different sections of the city, inspecting all the corners a wayward spirit might try to hide in, then checking again a little while later. That's not including the time it would take to settle disputes, or deal with dangerous ghosts like Watanabe or Gozaburo, or relocating kappas.

And all of that disregards that Domino has its dangers, like any other city, the more organized of which Seto is already familiar with. There's going to be overlap between the dark corners spirits like and the ones haunted by people up to no good. Ryou can handle ghosts but Seto's not so sure he can handle a physical assault.

Natsumi, Terumi and Yumi help where they can, as far as he can tell, but there's no way they can join the patrol every night and they clearly have lives of their own, while Ryou doesn't seem to have much else than this. He doubts that Ryou would let them come to the shadier parts of Domino as well.

Meaning that most of the time, Ryou's on his own.

"How can you stand it?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He wonders if he should ask about letting Yugi and the others in on it again despite knowing what Ryou will say in response, but realizes he's answered himself already. They also have lives of their own, as does he, and Ryou's already made it clear he won't put them in harm's way.

Still it doesn't mean they couldn't help out at least some of the time.

"Doing this alone."

"I'm not always alone, I have the girls and there's a few spirits who help out if they happen to be around. And I-I guess I have you, too."

"I've not joined you on patrol."

Ryou snorts. "I know that, I mean... It's just nice to be able to talk to someone. I don't really talk about stuff like this with anyone else. Not even..."

He falters and trails off at the end, but Seto doesn't really notice. He's never been a confidante for anyone besides Mokuba before. It's not as big a burden as he always assumed it would be, what it felt like back when he first learned about all of this. Aside from his blunder with Honda, it's been far easier than he first assumed to keep everything quiet.

There's something _powerful_ about it; Ryou trusts him with secrets this important more than anyone else, even though they don't really know each other all that well. He's privy to something the others aren't, even the girls. He's in on the brand new mysteries of Domino City and he's well ahead of Yugi on the curve to understanding Ryou Bakura.

"Where are you going on patrol this weekend?"

There's the sound of paper shuffling around as Ryou coughs awkwardly. "Uh, let's see... I guess I haven't been along the river in a while. Natsumi and Yumi are both out of town and I think Terumi's got relatives over, so she can't come..."

"I'll come in their place."

The river is quiet at night, as far as Seto can tell. He doubts Ryou is willing to put Seto in the really dangerous spots just yet, if he agrees to take Seto with him.

"Are you sure?"

"Mokuba's staying over at a friend's house this weekend, so he won't miss me."

"A-alright then! Wrap up warm and try to dress inconspicuously. Meet me at my house and we'll make our way from there, there's a path that leads to where the river hits the ocean not far from it. We'll work our way up from there until we hit the center of town. I don't think we'll need a bike, it's not that long a trek."

They say their goodbyes not long after that, and only a few minutes later his phone buzzes with a text holding Yumi's number. He decides to buy another phone, specially for this sort of thing. He'll have to be careful with security - there's no way they'll accept a request to visit Ryou without the suspicion he requires from them, especially since they'll quickly notice that neither of them are there once they sneak out. Best to make them assume he's under the jurisdiction of the guards at home. Perhaps he'll pull a maneuver he's seen in the movies and trick the home security into thinking he's still at work, let them cross the wires and hopefully once they figure it out Seto will be home free...

What the hell is he thinking? That's something Jounouchi would try to pull. He'll just say they aren't required for this visit and they'll do as they're told because that's what he pays them for. If anything happens he has a panic button in his watch that will have the area swarmed with his guards in minutes.

He shouldn't be looking forward to wandering around in the cold by the river at night as much as he is. It then occurs to him that he never asked Ryou when they should meet, and thinks that he shouldn't be looking forward to calling him again tomorrow either.

It's an odd thing to think, and certainly nothing that's ever crossed his mind before.


	7. Tsuki Kasa

Sorry for taking so long to update this over here!

Unbeta'd, my mistakes are trolling Seto from the afterlife.

* * *

He doesn't take the morning off after all, his natural body clock forcing him awake at his normal time regardless of heavy his eyes feel, though he does drop out of the disciplinary meeting. The well oiled machine of Kaiba Corp. keeps on rolling with no small effort on his part, as usual. That said, the decoding team are struggling to make it through the last page thanks to the language of the required titles suddenly and inexplicably changing from Pegasus' native English versions to romanized Russian, then to French, and a whole myriad of languages with each word - perhaps it was Pegasus' idea of mercy to stick with a single alphabet, instead of flitting around with hiragana and Arabic abjad and who knows what else. Just like before it's not _difficult_ so much as it is ungodly tedious, first to discover what language has been used and then to translate it back to Japanese. Perhaps he should've expected the final piece of this unnecessary puzzle to be a little tougher than the rest. He has a copy of the key cipher and the will already back at the mansion and he can correct the translated version the team's put together if he finds a spare moment.

Not like he doesn't have plenty of those moments coming; the nurse had been ambitious when she said they'd reopen in a week, and Domino High is closed until further notice. Other schools in the area have no space to take in the hundreds of extra students on such short notice and not a single substitute teacher has dared set foot near the place, meaning everyone's been left in an educational limbo. It's the biggest scandal to hit Domino High since the mysterious events of last year, wherein multiple students and a few faculty members were stricken with inexplicable (to most) mental breakdowns, but this doesn't have anything that goes against his custody agreement concerning Mokuba so he doesn't pay it much mind. Most of the students have been surprisingly proactive in response, setting up study groups via social media and teaching themselves. Yugi's friends as well as Ryou are among them and Kame Game is frequently listed as their location. Perhaps he could free up a few conference rooms for this purpose as well.

He's started to notice unusual things more throughout the day, although maybe it's just confirmation bias and an overactive imagination. Oddly persistent shadows in the corners of quieter rooms and stairwells, darker than perhaps they should be and the distinct feeling that there's something lurking. He doesn't like just 'feeling' without qualifying, but he can't quite justify poking around to seeing what's there to himself. An elderly employee walks by who he doesn't recognize, barely visible out of the corner of his eye, but she isn't there when he turns around. When he looks out of the window and gazes at the the Domino skyline, he can almost see spindly creatures clambering up the nearer skyscrapers, but they never go in open windows, instead lingering around like moths. They must do the same to this building as well.

So long as none of these things even consider interfering with Kaiba Corp. and its employees, all of them are welcome to stay. It's not like they have anywhere else to go, by the looks of things. His usual forest of miscellaneous hanging baskets, orchids and succulents in his office has been joined by a healthy number of miniature cypress trees regardless. None of the unusual things have tried to speak with him, but he can feel them watching. Perhaps that's what Ryou feels too, and the security cameras could be an attempt to even the playing field.

The possibility that a rival company may use said spirits to infiltrate Kaiba Corp. to spy is now a non-zero percent occurrence, and possibly even in the double-digits. Would it be possible to contract a spirit to do such a thing? How would they be paid? Would a ghost from say, the Manji era, even understand what they were seeing on the screens?

When he's not at his usual breakneck pace of operation, his mind continues to gnaw at the possibilities of spiritual corporate espionage, both defensive and aggressive, so before he really has the chance to feel the effects of his late night chat, it's already time to go pick up Mokuba.

* * *

He arrives at Mokuba's school a little early, just in time to hear the last bell ring and students begin to pour out the doors. It's a devastatingly normal junior school with normal standards but there are many private and incredibly strictly vetted tutors more than capable of supplementing what standard education has to offer. Mokuba is aware he has every right to refuse the extra lessons, and perhaps that's why he rarely does. Mokuba's surrounded by his usual flock of friends as they trot across the front yard, some vaguely familiar, some not. They split up at the gate and even though Mokuba knows he's being picked up by Seto instead of his usual driver, his face still lights up as he spots him.

The cafe Mokuba chooses is a small, family owned building that's been in Domino almost since its founding, though he's never been there himself. It has a balcony on the second floor, one that's empty at that. Perhaps Mokuba reserved all the seats to give them some privacy. He's been doing things like that more and more recently, taking the initiative in the same way that Seto would. He can't tell if it's deliberate or not, but it's impressive.

Seto remembers to smile as Mokuba regales him about his day; ever since he awoke from the coma, he's been paying close attention to Mokuba, but his default face must have always been too neutral for his brother's comfort.

Mokuba wants him to smile more, so he will.

Then Mokuba's phone buzzes with a voicemail alert and despite Seto giving him the go-ahead to answer, he sits rigid in his seat, only mumbling gratitude to the waitress who delivers their order. His good cheer from before has totally dissolved. Mokuba sinks down into the seat, an attempt at playing it cool by slouching but Seto knows better and he stares at Mokuba wordlessly until he starts squirming. Eventually, he cracks, pulling it out and placing it on the table, but not looking at it. "There's these weird messages that keep appearing on my phone, that's all. The text is all scrambled, I can't read it. I-I bet that's a new one."

"You've changed your number?"

"Yeah, but they still keep coming. I blocked each one but..."

Seto picks up the phone and once Mokuba nods his permission he scrolls through the offending messages. As he says, they're all incoherent, but what he notices immediately is that all the numbers they've been sent from are extremely familiar - he changes his personal number frequently and every single one is one he's already abandoned. He'd have to check the database to identify the leak in their records, though none of them seem much older than the one he first used after coming out of his coma, if he remembers correctly.

It buzzes in his hand, a new text message and he doesn't miss Mokuba's flinch at the noise. It's a mess of squares and apostrophes that are completely unreadable, just like the others. The content isn't an issue in itself but there's no way he can ignore anyone harassing his little brother to the point where he's afraid to answer his own phone. He puts it to his ear and waits to hear the voicemail, but all he gets is a screech of nothing but metallic distortion and crackling noises.

"How long has this been going on for?"

It takes Mokuba far too long to answer "... A couple of days, maybe? It started the day you told me how close we were to taking over Industrial Illusions for good."

Unacceptable. Both that they'd dare to hurt his brother this way and that it's taken Seto this long to notice anything amiss with Mokuba.

"I'll put a stop to this."

"Sorry," he mumbles. "So much for a nice evening out..."

"You haven't done anything wrong."

Mokuba looks away and is unusually quiet for the rest of the day, even going to bed without making a fuss. The first chance Seto gets, he takes Mokuba's phone again and blocks every single one of the old phone numbers he can remember, which would be an astonishingly high amount for someone who wasn't him.

* * *

That same night, once he retires to his own room, he calls Ryou. "I won't be joining you this weekend; someone's harassing Mokuba and I will not let them get away with it."

He doesn't apologize. There's nothing to apologize for when it comes to Mokuba's safety, ever.

"Of course - he's your little brother. I'd do the same. You want me to do some digging in my own area of expertise, I take it?"

"Yes."

"Consider it done."

There's not a hint of disappointment in Ryou's voice, nor a moment's hesitation, which is good. Seto takes it to mean that either he's truly not offended at the abrupt cancellation or that he's confident he can help before then. Both are encouraging, though Seto's not sure why he's given any thought to the former.

"Is Mokuba in danger?"

He can tell Ryou doesn't enjoy saying it, but he can appreciate honesty. "The fact that it's coming specifically from your old phone numbers worries me, I won't lie - that's unusually specific and if I didn't already know Gozaburo was gone, I'd consider him a prime suspect. Attempts to communicate aren't inherently bad, but until we know more I can't call it harmless either way. Can you send me a copy of that voicemail, along with all of the texts? It's possible the audio can be modulated into something listenable, with the right equipment, and the texts will have traces of what I'm looking for if they're not living in origin."

It's odd, hearing someone say Gozaburo's name with the same tone as if they were describing an annoying moth. It must be nice, not really knowing him as anything else. "What are the odds it's a real person?"

"I'd say not all that likely, in all honesty. I can't think of many people willing to risk their current lives trying to provoke you like this, and if it's been going on for that long a living person would've issued their demands by now, or have outed themselves some other way. Hey, Yumi's better than me at fixing scrambled audio and she's mad that she missed out on Watanabe, is it okay if I ask for her help? If you like, I can keep things confidential."

Yumi's the one he hasn't met yet, if he remembers correctly, but the first he heard about. Hopefully she's not harboring any secret feelings towards anyone, it's awkward enough with Natsumi.

"If she's as good as you say, then it won't matter. Go ahead."

Perhaps knowing who is involved will incentivize her to perform above and beyond her normal capabilities.

"One more thing; Mokuba hasn't replied to any of them, has he?"

"No."

Seto has though, just before calling Ryou. Perhaps it was foolish, maybe even a bit petty, but if whatever is doing this IS just an ordinary person then maybe they'd get the scare of their life once they realized who's attention was focused on their necks. It wasn't much, just a reminder that they are dealing with Seto Kaiba himself now, just like they want, and should get themselves a damn decent lawyer.

"Good, if we can't establish the nature of their contact, they might be assuming their messages aren't being seen. Replying lets them know they've been heard and it gives them the justification they want in order to escalate things, if they don't like the response."

Oh.

"I see."

* * *

The messages begin to appear on his own phone, in fact the first arrives just after he's done speaking to Ryou. He can't shake the feeling that they're not as malicious in tone than the ones that Mokuba received however. There's something plaintive about them that he can't put his finger on, yet another unqualifiable 'feeling'. Mokuba confesses one morning that the texts would show up at all hours, and most often in the middle of the night or early morning, but his messages have all arrived at far more reasonable hours, most of them almost convenient in nature, like when he's in the car on the way to Kaiba Corp. and not five minutes before the alarm clock went off, like Mokuba had to deal with. He forwards them all to Ryou.

* * *

He takes off from work early that day and heads straight for Ryou's bizarre little homestead and it's no less disconcerting the second time around. There's two bicycles propped up on one of the walls, chained to railings not far away; perhaps the second belongs to Yumi. Ryou lets him in, quickly shushing him and leading him to the couch where Yumi is. He's unexpected but Ryou still darts off to make him some tea. Obviously he saw Seto coming on the cameras; one of them has a decent shot of fifty yards or so up the road. That's a few extra seconds to prepare for anything, which can mean the difference between life and death.

Yumi's exactly as he remembers her looking as she perches on the couch and leans over the coffee table, even if it's odd seeing anyone outside of their school uniforms. She hasn't noticed him yet, her eyes shut tight as she listens through enormous headphones that wouldn't look out of place in the audio departments. There's an odd device on the table hooked up to it, and in that is a USB that presumably contains the voicemail audio. She's carefully twisting dials with one hand, the other poised with a pencil over paper beside her. There's a few scratches on the paper already, false starts by the looks of the red line through them.

"She's been at this for a while now," Ryou whispers when he comes back and sets down their cups (a simple citrus tea, nothing you couldn't find in any decently sized supermarket). "Best to let her do her thing without interrupting."

He's wearing red, Seto notices, a slightly too large woolen thing that hangs a little off his shoulders and over his wrists. Not quite like the curtains, perhaps more rust? He's more used to seeing him in blue, but it oddly suits him.

It's another few minutes or so, but suddenly the hand wielding the pencil slams down on the table and scrawls out a message, then another, and then the same word repeated, over and over again. Ryou reaches over and hits some sort of switch on the side of the machine, and Yumi's eyes snap open and she jumps backwards into the couch, breathing heavily as she tears the headphones away.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," she mutters as Ryou helps her sit upright. "Shit, never been in that deep a trance before. Whatever sent that message is _pissed._ "

Then she sees Seto, but he ignores her stuttered greeting to focus on what she's written.

_IWANTMYBIGBROTHER  
_

The words are stark on the bright paper, unmistakable even with Yumi's shaky handwriting. Ryou closes his eyes but Seto can't bring himself to feel any pity.

_FAKELIARGETAWAYFROMHIM_

They lost whatever sympathy they could hope to get the moment they began terrorizing his own brother and they'll face the consequences, ghost or otherwise.

_FAKEFAKEFAKE  
_

Seto's phone buzzes in his pocket and the garnets on his wrist are tingling again. It's not Mokuba or any of the security staff, as much as he wants it to be. Ryou notices, and with a single raised eyebrow he somehow manages to convey that he's realized Seto contacted the one tormenting Mokuba.

"How long has this been going on for?"

"Only after I called you. They're not nearly as frequent as Mokuba's - this is the first since lunch."

"I see. At least it won't be going after Mokuba anymore. Maybe we can lure it into showing itself, now that it knows it has the big brother's attention."

* * *

The three of them wait until the end of the working day, when even the most dedicated of Seto's employees have finally been convinced that they can leave the work until tomorrow, and Seto delegates the out of hours security staff to patrolling only the outside of the building, citing the pleasant evening weather. None of them make any comment about his odd entourage, as expected. Yumi accompanies Seto to the lower levels, while Ryou speeds on ahead with his section from the top. The seals they need to use are nearly identical to the ones Ryou had back at school, only these are the size of postage stamps, maybe smaller. A single one can cover almost an entire floor, so they are finished rather quickly and they meet roughly at the middle.

The plan is to shield the entire building, preventing access from outside spirits temporarily and forcing the internal spirits into a brief dormant state, with the exception of a single floor. Then, Seto will call the spirit and ask them to come and find him. By forcing the spirit to take a certain path, Ryou and Yumi will be able to trap it before it can reach him and try to either reason with it, or exorcise it.

He calls the most recent text. There's nothing but static for a while, he can't make anything out. He has a pretty good idea what might get its attention, however. "I'm waiting for you at Kaiba Corp., fifty fourth floor."

The line is silent for a moment, then hangs up. They wait.

They wait a little more.

Ten minutes crawl by and _nothing_ has happened. Ryou's looking increasingly twitchy and Yumi not-so-subtly checks her watch. "Did we miss a floor?"

"I don't think so... Is there a hidden basement or something?"

"No."

The dueling arena is the only place Seto can think of and he makes his way there, Yumi and Ryou trailing behind - perhaps the room was too large to cover, and the spirit slipped in without them noticing. It's far warmer in here than the rest of the building, the delicate electronics within too prone to damage in prolonged cold. As he gazes over the arena that temptation to challenge someone to duel makes an aggressive return, even though he has work to do. He doubts either of them would be up for a duel though, assuming they even brought their decks - then again, it's become increasingly common for even non-tournament level competitors to carry a basic deck around.

There were plenty of generic cards they could use in the meantime back in the observation room, or maybe the ones downloaded and stored in the arena's temporary memory banks, they just wouldn't render correctly. Maybe he'd sneak a card referencing that in - a grey textured cube monster of some kind could be interesting, or a trap cards that poses as a glitch and breaks the model somehow. Every game needs a stream of allegedly forgettable throwaways that will become someone's niche tool to victory.

It's really been too long since his last spectacle of a game. If he had the time he'd throw a tournament but he doesn't want it to end up like Battle City. Even excluding the supernatural side of things, organizing a takeover of the entire city was... well, about as difficult as organizing the takeover of the entire city, especially on such short notice.

Looking back, Seto wonders why he had to rush everything. It doesn't make sense. Even allowing an extra week seemed inconceivable at the time and in all honesty, the favors he cashed in on and the strings he pulled would have been better suited for other projects. The fiasco of the Ghouls, the Ishtars, how almost _all_ the footage of the finals was hopelessly corrupted.. _._

The Internet's gone wild with theories, ranging from sabotage, to accusations of magic that are frighteningly close to the truth as far as he knows, to the ridiculous - he would never hire anyone incompetent enough to damage the footage on purpose or otherwise, nor would he have a motive to. He remembers the chief editor attempting to resign in shame at his apparent failure during the worst of the fallout and Seto practically had to force the man to stay.

All in all, it was a disaster. It was a surprise then that at least that time nobody took his loss as a sign the company was crumbling this time. Maybe the publicity and cash flow from the tournament quashed all fears about Seto's abilities for the second time, regardless of his own skill. Maybe he should have another tournament soon - one that would be practically relaxing compared to the trials everyone faced before. There's no doubt in his mind that Yugi would enter. Maybe Jounouchi would too, or perhaps one of the Ishtars would deign to show up. He hasn't heard from them in a while, actually. Would Ryou take part? Or Mai Kujaku, perhaps?

Yumi interrupts his line of thought as she squeals at the arena, dashing down the steps and throwing her arms out at the sight. "Look at this _beauty_! Can I open it up and look at the mechanics of this thing? Pretty please?!"

Ryou's busy covering the doorway they came in with seals and judging by the smile he tries to hide he's purposefully ignoring them, leaving it to Seto to say, "No."

She purses her lips in irritation, but then smirks. "If you told me you'd have to kill me, right?"

The mechanics of the dueling arenas are not _that_ secretive, not on the level of his plan for almost a decade from now that's yet to leave his head, but he lets his silence speak for him. She laughs suddenly, trying to hide it behind her hand. It's not like he actually would, but he doubts any teenager could hold to an NDA for long. There's no harm in letting her take a superficial look though.

"Feel free to examine the outside."

"Hell yes, thanks!"

Yumi kicks off her shoes, then clambers up onto the display platform and he has the sneaking suspicion that he's just been played as he watches her, being tall enough that he can see what she's doing without climbing up with her, though any irritation is tempered knowing that she's at least not going to track dirt all over the machinery. Not only that but she avoids stepping on the relatively delicate display field itself without being told, keeping to the stronger non-holograph producing boundary around the outside where he'll be placing camera crews for close up promotional shots. She's clearly excited to examine everything within reach, but treats it with the respect it deserves and doesn't touch a thing without looking back at him for permission.

Yumi's surprisingly tolerable. All three of Ryou's friends are, in retrospect, even with Natsumi's angst and Terumi's inexplicable cheerfulness. How did they even meet? He can bear to be around them in a completely different way to how he can around Yugi and the others. He tries, as Mokuba is desperate for him to do, but sitting with them or trying to talk to them about things he honestly has no experience with still feels so unnatural and he can tell it's the same for them too. Why wouldn't it be? Death T. wasn't that long ago, and he still hasn't said two words to Yugi's grandfather.

Should he? Mokuba would want him to, but what could he possibly say? Would any sort of apology be accepted, after so long and after what he did to him and his beloved grandson? What about Jounouchi and Yugi, or Honda and Anzu?

Maybe that's why he gets on with these four; he hasn't tried to murder any of them.

The arena roars into life and chases all those thoughts out, the ceiling lights blinding him as they suddenly turn full blast, as if to replicate the brightness of a stadium in full daylight. Yumi hastily apologizes but he waves it off - the control mechanism to activate the dueling arena has nothing to do with the lights. Either someone's gone to some incredible lengths to challenge Seto to a duel, which honestly isn't that unlikely these days and it's not like he wouldn't be tempted to agreeing without the theatrics, or...

The spirit wasn't outside the building. It's been there, somewhere around or even inside the dueling arena, all this time.

Ryou's the first to react, realizing it at the same time. "Yumi, get off the arena!"

Before she can leap off the side it's like she smacks into glass. He can't hear anything she says as she attempts to batter the invisible barrier down with her fists, nor can she hear either of them by the looks of things. The seals Seto slaps on do _nothing_ , crumbling away without leaving so much as a single scratch.

The display field glows, then fills the barrier with a blinding white mist and she's soon engulfed, vanishing from sight. The garnets burn where they touch his skin.


	8. Jakukou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did that thing where I upload a few chapters to FF and forget about the AO3 crowd, sorry!

He looks at Ryou, wanting some explanation, or order or _something_ else to try. Ryou is quiet but his eyes are sharp and focused. He's not panicking, not yet. That's good. Seto rips the bracelet off, careful not to break it, when the burn becomes too much. He shoves it into his pocket, the same one holding the soul card he played before.

The machinery whirs and the distinct sound of something being summoned breaks the silence, though they can see nothing. Something seems to click in Ryou's mind. Seto watches his gaze at it travels back and forth across the arena. Then he climbs into the duelist podium with the ladder, since whoever did this hasn't deigned to activate the platform elevator functions themselves.

Once he reaches the top, he calls out to Seto. "Get up on the other side. I'll tell you the cards being used, you duel."

"What?"

"If it just wanted to kill Yumi and be done with it, we would've seen the results by now. It could've hidden inside _anything_ but it's chosen a dueling arena, of all things. It's possible that who or whatever is doing this is trying to replicate a shadow game, in which case it wants to duel us - or you - for her fate. Presumably if we win, we get Yumi back, but if we lose-"

"I won't lose."

He's only just met Yumi and she's about to die and his victory here is her only chance of survival. Stakes like this are nothing Seto isn't used to.

"... If we lose, I know for a fact that it _can't_ use shadow game rules or magic to hurt her. I don't really know what will happen, but best not to find out regardless, I guess. Good luck."

It's a long shot, but it's the only theory Ryou has and Seto doesn't have anything better to offer. The idea that his own loss, as incredibly unlikely as it seems, might _not_ mean the end of Yumi is...

Relief crashes through him. It shouldn't because she's still in danger, she could still die if he loses.

But she also might not. There's a chance that _nothing_ could happen. When he dueled Yugi in Duelist Kingdom, failing meant he'd lose Mokuba. Losing to Pegasus lost him his own soul. Losing to Malik's alter ego, or whatever that was, might have made him lose his soul _again_ , along with his sanity. Losing to Yugi put his company and everything he'd worked for in danger. Tournaments have prestige, reputations, connections, all of which would be in jeopardy at a loss.

He can't recall the last time he had a duel that even had the potential for there to be nothing at stake.

Seto climbs his own ladder. If he remembers correctly, Yumi was trapped on his side. If this fog breaches the boundary of life and death, perhaps it does the same to wherever the duel monsters are from. In that case, the monsters on his side of the field should protect her. But that means she could be attacked by monsters from the other side. On the other hand, the monsters still have to obey their master, and if the ghost doesn't command them to attack her she's safe, and who would waste a turn attacking someone who wouldn't affect their opponent's lifepoints in a duel?

There's a keyboard embedded on the side of the dueling board that provides a text/speech function to the arena. It's designed for duelist with speech or hearing issues, as well as serving as a translator for international duels, and now it might be a way to communicate with the ghost. He types in 'duel y/n'. A few moments later, there's a response.

'y. if i win you give me back my brother'

'who is that?' doesn't get an answer.

"They're taking the first turn; the monster they've already summoned is Watapon in defense mode and the card they drew before that is Krokodilus."

As they duel, Seto realizes two things. One is that this ghost is really not that good a duelist. Its strategies are bizarre, setting up for combos that it can't possibly hope to complete. It even tries to play Polymerization without having one of the monsters needed to fuse. It draws a Time Wizard card and discards it immediately.

The second is that the cards his opponent is using are familiar. They're all cards that have been downloaded and saved within the machine as basic stress tests that day. None of the monsters besides Necrofear have functioning animation, (though hers wouldn't have been saved anyway) only a square block with a flat 2D texture while the drivers render particle and light effects from spell and trap cards, which are far easier and faster to animate.

The spell and trap cards were thrown in to make sure the animation rendering synchronized in the correct playing order no matter how much stress the system was under. It wouldn't do for a magic card animation to complete and cycle the monsters targeted back to idle before the countering trap's animation began to play, for example.

Not that he can see any of these effects anyway - no matter what cards he plays the fog doesn't clear.

"Krokodilus is face down in defense mode, and they've also drawn a Magic Jammer that they placed face-down as well. I could've sworn that card was banned. Your move."

"This arena's set to Duelist Kingdom rules, not Battle City - there's not a single banned card in the Duelist Kingdom rule book. It's designed for lightning round or timed matches due to the reduced number of lifepoints and no need to set up summons for stronger monsters... End turn."

"Nice one - I didn't know you used Bait Doll!"

"Not usually. Might suit your deck's theme better."

"You think so?"

It seemed appropriate to look into the occult cards alongside his forays into the real thing (although those occult cards _are_ real, somewhere. Somewhere he can't get to. But Ryou _can_ ). Most of them fall counter to his own style of hitting hard and fast, involving dangerous hits to your own lifepoints, but there's a few that have caught his eye. Necrofear is not among them; just holding the card's copy felt too odd. It - no, _she_ \- is Ryou's monster in his mind. Presumably Ryou would feel just as odd using one of the Blue Eyes, or how Yugi must have felt with the Red Eyes.

He doesn't recall seeing Ryou duel back in Duelist Kingdom. Granted that's because he didn't enter, but he should've realized how suspicious it was that someone with no real tournament experience made it to the Battle City finals. With a single duel, no less. Then again, considering the wound he had, perhaps Seto should've been more suspicious that he was even standing.

He shouldn't have let him duel. It's yet another nail in the coffin of how badly Seto had handled Battle City, but this one seems far sharper.

Ryou nearly died, if not for the mercy of some evil ghost, because he wouldn't let Yugi stop the duel before witnessing Osiris. Ryou was in pain, visibly in distress, and Seto didn't care in the slightest. Not so long as he could see some sparkly animation of a giant flying lizard, an animation that had to have been crafted by Pegasus no less so he couldn't even say he wanted to see the fruits of his own team's labor.

Mai, comatose and steadily fading, along with Rishid. Jounouchi, practically flat-lining as he and Yugi dueled. Ryou, in need of dire surgery, then simply vanishing from sight.

Malik, undergoing a disassociation event so severe that he tried to kill his own brother. Isis, trapped watching her family crumble with only the promise of fate to comfort her.

And Seto didn't care about _any_ of them, so long as he got his god cards. What the hell was wrong with him? What the hell _is_ wrong with him that he's only started thinking - _caring_ \- about it now?

(Is it really anything really new? It's not like he cared about the people who suffered to get him his Blue Eyes cards either...)

That's not Gozaburo's voice he hears, far from it, but it might as well be. The card display field is shockingly warm against his hand as he tries to clear his head and consider his move. But suddenly he can't see the field. Did the fog rise to cover the podiums?

"Seto? Are you alright?"

Ryou's voice cuts through the haze clinging to his mind. Seto almost wants to laugh when he looks up, because this is the most worried he's ever seen Ryou and it's about _Seto_ , not the ghost or his friend in potential danger.

That's right. He needs to focus on the duel, on saving Yumi.

Everything else has to wait its turn.

The warmth of the display field comes back to mind, with a vengeance. A problem he'd forgotten at the start was that the drivers, as powerful as they are, physically don't have an adequate self-cooling system for lasting the length of the average duel just yet. With every advancement they make graphically, the development for that system has to take a step back to be adjusted.

He has perhaps five minutes before this stadium's drivers overheat and switch themselves off, and the duel ends by dint of hardware limitations - hopefully this ghost isn't aware of that, and by playing it safe with his lifepoints he can win by default. There's far less than 40 cards that have been saved to the machine as well, so it's entirely possible the ghost is on the verge of decking out.

The fog's shown no sign of clearing however, or Yumi, even as his opponent's lifepoints drop while his own increase. It's only an _assumption_ that winning the duel will save her and that losing might have no consequences either.

The ghost plays the Rabidragon, an intimidating monster (in terms of attack and defense points, at least) but he has something better. He knows what card he needs and if he's picked up anything from Yugi it's that sometimes the stars align and the card you need is right there when you want it.

The card he draws is not the Blue Eyes. It's the card he was trapped in by Pegasus and he wonders if fate is laughing at him. How did it even end up inside his deck? He doesn't remember shuffling to include it.

Wait.

That urge he felt before, playing the other soul card, rears its head once more. No, not exactly the same... A deep ache this time, a _need_ , something in his soul _screams_.

He's felt _that_ before too. It guided him through Pegasus' castle, when he woke up in the cell all alone and could only think of Mokuba.

He has a hunch, and plays the card.

For a moment, nothing happens.

Then the fog clears, the dueling arena goes completely silent and Yumi suddenly tumbles out, presumably from where she'd been trying to bash the barrier down with her fists, or maybe even charge it. She manages to brace for impact at the last second, but there's a sickening thud as she hits the ground. Ryou abandons his platform, leaping off halfway down the ladder and running to her side. "Yumi!"

She pushes herself upright. She's wincing a little, but from where Seto's standing she doesn't look like she's been seriously hurt. "I'm good," she confirms as she raises one arm to weakly fistbump the air.

He jumps down from the podium himself. Ryou's checking Yumi for any injuries despite her protests. There's something in her eyes when she looks at Seto as he approaches. Wary, but not like she's afraid of him. Nervous, like she's keeping a secret.

Pity? No, it couldn't be. She wouldn't dare.

"Are you hurt? I'll foot the bill for any treatment you need."

She groans. "It's just a bump, guys. I've had worse when my mutt pulls me over chasing birds."

Ryou's entire body seems to sag with relief, which is odd considering how sure he was that she'd be alright. "I'm so sorry, Yumi."

Yumi rolls her eyes, reaches over and ruffles his hair, and Seto wonders how close they are since he's never seen the others do that to him. "Seriously," she says more to him than Seto, "I'm _fine_."

* * *

The driver makes no comment on Seto's unusual entourage, or how odd it is that they're the last people to leave the Kaiba Corp. building. Yumi's house isn't far. With the privacy screen down the driver cannot hear a word of their - or rather, Yumi's - conversation. He wonders how on earth she's managed to keep this a secret for so long, given that she didn't check that this was the case herself before chatting.

She hugs Ryou and smiles at Seto, but it doesn't hold for long. "Hey, Seto?"

"Yes?"

"If you need to talk, about like... anything? You've got my number. I might not have much advice but I'm told I'm a helluva good listener."

_What did she see?_

She shuts the door and runs before he can respond, which seems counter-intuitive to her point, and Ryou just shrugs when he looks at him. The driver asks where to next, which is Ryou's home. The silence, now that Yumi's not there gushing about how good all the particle effects looked and insisting that she's alright, is deafening. He pulls out his deck, and reaches into his other pocket, pulling out the soul card and his garnets. The two blank soul cards are soon matched, but this time his bracelet is stone cold.

What, exactly, did he do? He trusted his instincts and he was right but that's not an explanation. That doesn't tell him _how_ it worked, how it might be applied to future incidents.

"Are those the soul cards from Pegasus?" Ryou asks quietly, though Seto almost flinches all the same. He'd briefly forgotten he was there, to tell the truth.

"They are - Yugi gave them to me. I played one of them a few days ago, back right before this mess started. I played the other one to end the duel."

"Why did you play the first one?"

"It felt right. Same with the second." It's the only answer he can give.

"I see. May I hold one of them?"

It's an almost primal reaction. No, he can't. Never. Nobody can.

Why is that?

Ryou isn't insulted by his wordless refusal, at any rate. In fact, he has the same look on his face as when he met Seto at the airport when Mokuba was still sick, which feels like an age ago. A quiet confidence, that he knows exactly what's about to happen.

"Those cards housed our souls," Seto says lamely. Ryou knows this, he doesn't need to repeat it. But Ryou accepts his answer all the same.

"I have a theory, if you'd like to hear it. A work in progress, but still."

Seto does too, but he doesn't want to think about the implications just yet because doing so sends shards of ice through his veins. "Were they ghosts?"

"Not quite. You know how when you use an rubber stamp on a letter? Think of the soul cards as the paper, the shadow magic the ink, while your soul would be the stamp. I think the shadow magic left an imprint of your soul within the card itself. So, even when your soul returned to your body, there was a space left behind of 'Seto' or 'Mokuba'. A flat copy, none of the depth of the original by any means, but I think it was sufficient enough to have some emotional capabilities and the belief that it was the real brother - and duel, obviously. That's why it was so upset with Mokuba, either for 'pretending' to be it, or his brother. Neither one of them had memories of the other being freed, so they may have assumed they still needed to save them."

"So there was nothing from my or Mokuba's souls in there?"

"No, just an imprint. Mokuba's soul is completely intact, as is yours. You don't damage a rubber stamp by using it after all."

This must have been how Ryou felt when Yumi reappeared. Mokuba is fine. Mokuba is safe. Nothing of him, or Seto himself for that matter, was left behind within the cards when their souls were taken.

Seto hasn't hurt Mokuba again.

"I'd wager you didn't even destroy the imprint, to be honest. It dissipated of its own will once it got what it wanted - its brother. You can't really destroy spirits so easily, especially without shadow magic," Ryou continues. That's a relief too - an imperfect copy of his brother is still his brother.

* * *

Despite the earlier brightness at figuring out and stopping Mokuba's troubles, Ryou's mood darkens as they get closer and closer to his home. As the driver pulls over, he opens the door, then stops before stepping out. "Listen, about this weekend..."

"Should I bring a coat?" The forecast looks pretty positive, but flash showers were still commonplace.

Ryou shakes his head, not looking Seto in the eye. "To be honest, I don't think you should come after all. Or, uh. Ever."

He can't let Seto catch a glimpse of a world he never knew, then tell him to forget about it. It's not fair. If he thinks Seto will just quietly go and pretend he's not aware of all the ghostly bullshit that keeps infesting Domino City, he's damn wrong. "Is there a problem?" he asks, keeping his voice calm.

Ryou shifts uncomfortably, still not meeting his gaze. "What happened today shouldn't have happened. That could've been you trapped in there. You were in danger and I should've been more prepared. I'm sorry."

"I'm the one who escalated the situation."

Ryou smiles, but he doesn't even try to pretend it's not fake, like he's trying to pacify an unruly customer instead of Seto. "You're the CEO, you know exactly who gets blamed when something goes wrong and people get hurt under your authority. It's always the person at the top, as it should be."

"There's also the concept of 'reasonable doubt' - you couldn't have predicted that the ghost wasn't really a ghost, or that it would possess the stadium instead of a person."

Ryou shakes his head. Seto bites the inside of his cheek. "Like I said, I'll see you this weekend."

"Seto, I _can't_ let this happen again."

"Would you rather I walked the streets alone? Or tried to take on a spirit without anyone else around?"

"Of course not! But-"

"Are you planning on having this conversation with Yumi and the other two?"

Ryou opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. He shuts it again and nods, shrinking into himself.

"If you'd been alone against Watanabe," he reasons, "you wouldn't have had time to set up the protective circle before she attacked. You wouldn't have even been aware of her before she broke through the time magic."

He looks miserable, like Yugi did back when nobody knew where Ryou was.

"You brought us into this," he continues. "It would be irresponsible to cut us loose without any guidance."

Ryou closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath, but holds it for a few seconds. When he releases it, he opens his eyes again. "I get it. Come by around midnight, and you're right to bring a coat."

Good, because Seto doesn't get it. At least, he doesn't get why the idea of being cut off like this bothers him so much. It's not like he's wrong about what he said to Ryou, but they don't feel like the only reasons to him. But he can't place what makes him so uncomfortable walking away from this, from Ryou. It's like Ryou was personally insulting him when he tried to reject Seto, which is ridiculous since Ryou doesn't have a deliberately cruel bone in his body, and Seto has faced far worse insults.

Ryou smiles, hesitant but for real this time and manages to look at Seto, finally. "You're a good friend," he says as he leaves the car. "Thanks."

Nobody has ever said that to Seto before. He's got no clue how to respond, beyond a stiff nod and signalling the driver to leave.

* * *

"Hey Seto!" is the first thing he hears on stepping through the doors of their mansion. Mokuba's on the steps that lead out of the foyer, wrapped tightly in an oversized cashmere blanket - he must have gotten bored and decided to roll himself up in it, since he looks more like a bread roll right now than a young boy. He's still stuck in the cloth as he hops over to Seto, and he only just manages to catch him as he loses his balance and crashes into his chest. Of course, judging by the snicker, it might've been deliberate. He kneels so he can be at Mokuba's eye level, and prop him upright with his leg.

"Any luck finding my creepy stalker?"

"Consider them taken care of."

"Like, mafia-style cement shoes taken care of or...?"

He hasn't dealt with the mafia for a long time, not since the custody hearing for Mokuba, but it still sends a jolt through him. Maybe Mokuba senses it because he doesn't ask anything about who they were or why he was targeted, instead just letting Seto hold him. Mokuba chatters about how he's not had a single text since the day before, then about school and the weekend trip and how glad he is that he doesn't have to worry about it anymore, and Seto listens to every word. The thought that he could've destroyed a piece of Mokuba's soul, despite Ryou's assurance, surges once more and gnaws at him.

He draws Mokuba in close. "I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for being my brother."

Then, "I love you."

Mokuba tenses, then wriggles his arms free of the blanket and hugs Seto back tenfold, mumbling the same in reply into his shoulder with a grin Seto can feel through his shirt. He shouldn't be so surprised at receiving affection from Seto and a fresh, entirely new sensation of guilt curls up inside Seto's throat.

(And he's only just now feeling guilty, when Mokuba's been suffering because of him for years.)

Not Gozaburo's voice, again. Now that he has a chance to listen, it sounds more like his own. Gozaburo had a habit of making him recite all his failings whenever he made a rare mistake. He would stand in the center of the room, Gozaburo against the wall with the crop dangling lazily between his fingers. The ever present threat of being sent back to the orphanage alone should he repeat the error, or Mokuba being brought in to witness his brother's failure or even be offered the chance to take his punishment for him, would choke his neck tight as the collar.

Perhaps he should be more affected by this memory - as it is, what should be a sharp edge is nothing more than numbness, easily pushed aside under the weight of Mokuba in his arms, at least for now.

He stands, taking Mokuba with him and carries him to his bedroom despite his protests. It's a school night for Mokuba after all.

Something catches his eye as he shuts Mokuba's door. A flash of blond hair and the sound of someone quietly walking away around a corner. He follows it and sees the back of Jounouchi as he retires to 'his' room.

Was he watching them? Why?

The numbness returns now that Mokuba's gone, and he can't find the energy to confront Jounouchi about this behavior right now. He'll be busy at work tomorrow, and then there's Ryou's outing to be ready for. Perhaps after that, he'll find out what's going on, or catch him doing it again.

Right now though, he just wants today to end already. Maybe he'll call Yumi after all, or Ryou maybe, when his legs don't feel like they're encased in cement with every step.

* * *


	9. Teppen no Ito

All morning the next day, Seto finds himself with almost nothing but Ryou's odd behavior on his mind. After being so happy for Seto to join him for Watanabe, so confident, he suddenly tries to cut him off after the card ghost? Ridiculous. If Seto gave up and threw out the whole team with the drawing board whenever something didn't turn out as planned, he'd have no employees left - it's something you just have to accept when you're on the cutting edge of experimental technology. He's still got dozens, if not hundreds, of rejected duel disk and monster concepts in a storeroom at home.

(A duel not going according to plan is an entirely different situation, of course.)

The only thing Seto can surmise is that Ryou's issues stem from Yumi being the one trapped inside the dueling arena, instead of himself. That damn martyr instinct welling up again no doubt. Ryou's far too willing to die protecting others and Seto's starting to wonder how much of that is nobility versus a total lack of self-respect. He's a hedgehog, Seto thinks. A very lonely one. He's desperate to be near others but the seconds his spines so much as touch the other person's skin he runs away screaming apologies.

Satisfied that he's at least reached a conclusion, though he has no idea what to do with it, Seto tries to focus. However, something else he's been ignoring begins to simmer on the back of his mind and it takes until his reluctant lunch break for Seto to finally ask himself why he's even doing this. Just saying it in his head sounds ridiculous. He's going to wander the streets of Domino after dark, in disguise as a normal teenager no less, to hunt _ghosts_ with _Ryou Bakura_. There's certainly better ways to spend a late night. He's got minutes to read and contracts to sign, mental sketches to put to paper, all sorts of things that would surely be of higher priority. Mokuba would always appreciate time with him. His phone is right there - he could still cancel tonight right now and he knows Ryou wouldn't question it, especially now. He could probably cancel everything else too and simply phase Ryou out of his life entirely - it's not like he doesn't have the grounds to do so, especially since Ryou was asking the same thing of him just recently.

Removing Ryou, however, wouldn't remove the spirits. It wouldn't protect Mokuba from them, or Kaiba Corp. Seto cannot forget what he's seen, what he _might_ see and odds are the spirits will see him too eventually, no matter how hard he tries to hide it. His world is once again changed, forever. He almost blames, _resents_ , Ryou for it, but after a few minutes of deliberation he decides it's not his fault. He didn't ask Gozaburo to possess Seto and harm Mokuba and it's not like he's forcing Seto into something he doesn't want to do. At every turn, Seto has been given the choice to walk away. Not even in an 'all or nothing' sense - Ryou's probably encountered and dealt with ghosts every day that he hasn't seen fit to include Seto in, presumably trying to keep Seto's CEO duties in mind. He's been free to pick and choose exactly how much involvement he wants to have.

But there's the issue again - _Seto wants to be involved._

 _Why?_ What is the appeal? Tonight, for example, is almost certainly going to be cold and dark. It might rain. They could be out for hours, with no guarantee of success and only each other for company. He also doesn't enjoy being the least educated person in the room, not by any stretch, and that's exactly what will happen since he still has no idea what information is credible and what is not. Curiosity, maybe? It's certainly a side of Domino he's never seen before, creatures and beings almost unlike anything he's ever known. It's something entirely new and Seto's nothing if not a glutton for knowledge.

That must be it.

* * *

About an hour before Kaiba Corp. officially closes its door for the day for all but the most overzealous employees, Seto receives a call from his chief of security. Mokuba's been 'kidnapped', or at least that's what his newest potential personal guard has reported. In truth he's perfectly safe, his driver simply swapping vehicles from Mokuba's custom sports car to a slightly beat up old Toyota with another disguised employee inside, the two of them performing a typical 'snatch and go' maneuver.

Hazing the newbie is a time honored tradition, one that Mokuba adores especially when he gets to reveal the deception to see how they react. Seto couldn't care less about the newbie's opinion on the matter - if they can't deal with being made fun of by an eleven year old boy, they have no business guarding him. From what he knows so far, the guard is performing perfectly. He's doing everything he's been trained to do, most importantly. Far too many potential bodyguards are undone by their own desire to prove themselves as something special, without realizing that Seto has no interest in mavericks, at least not ones that operate outside of a sketchpad. The last thing Mokuba needs is an overexcited moron who escalates the situation to play hero and ends up getting shot in front of him.

Considering most of the complaining Seto's had from Mokuba relates to the newbie having a stupidly good poker face, he'll probably be perfect. Seto's not hiring some friendly second brother or 'cool uncle', he's hiring someone who will always willingly place Mokuba's life before anything and anyone else - even Seto. He wants someone who understands exactly how serious this job is.

"We'll inform him of his success via radio. Mokuba's whereabouts are not the designated safe house he'd selected prior, so he will most likely be unable to do it in person himself in good time."

There's several safe houses within Domino. A restaurant with a secret basement, a specially installed panic room in Domino High as well as his own school, and both the Kame Game and newly rebuilt Black Crown shops. Chief's tone doesn't suggest any harm has come to Mokuba, or that he thinks any will. Still... "Explain."

"Seven minutes ago he deviated from the path to the safe house and requested a stop on the east entrance to the old Domino City Park, From there he collected a classmate from his house and the two of them were driven to some sort of derelict office facility besides the abandoned docks, after which he requested the driver and his aide go on standby and circle the area. I'm aware that one of your own classmates lives there - given recent history, I have no reason to believe that either of them are in imminent danger, though I should probably tell the new guy that..."

'Believe', like he hasn't got a file several inches thick on Ryou that has things even Ryou might not know about himself inside. Seto will trust that his head of security will not compromise Ryou's confidence in Seto by revealing the contents to him, unless it means life or death. Seto knows a few things, like how he switched schools a lot in the past, or that his record is full of statements that something bad happened to a classmate and he was around, but there's no proof he actually did anything and these incidences ceased almost entirely in Domino High. Only a single teacher has ever had any contention with him, a gym teacher unpopular with both students and the other faculty members anyway, who joined the multitude of teachers still recovering from their mysterious affliction in hospital.

He also knows that Ryou's only living relative is his father, or at least he's the only other member of his immediate family. Since there was no suspicion of foul play on the father or Ryou's part, his Chief saw fit not to give Seto any details on what happened to his mother and younger sister. That he once had them and now doesn't is all Seto needs to hear, unless Ryou chooses to divulge this himself.

The sister might have been about Mokuba's age by now. Would they have gone to the same school, or perhaps even be in the same class? Would they have been friends? The Chief's polite cough breaks the train of thought and Seto remembers that he's on the phone. "He's managed to track them all the way there?"

"Yes, he managed to get a visual on them thirty seconds after the friend was collected and followed them the whole way there. He witnessed the two of them enter the house and I think he's figured out this was a ruse of some kind since he didn't pursue the 'kidnappers' once they left. He's been monitoring the area ever since. He did this all on foot too, beat his own back-up car here - he's a dedicated son of a bitch, I'll give him that."

"Impressive." Seto briefly wonders if the newbie's been picked up by Ryou's security cameras. If he's managed to approach a house that monitored without being caught, he's already due a raise. Ryou probably wouldn't mind letting him check before they leave. Mokuba making the trip at all is a little concerning, but perhaps he just wanted to get some fresh air - as fresh as the air can be surrounded by all those dead factories, anyway. Seto hasn't forgotten about all the scrap metal however - he'll have to have words with Ryou about arranging professionals to clear the area. "Don't bother sending a car to retrieve Mokuba, I can pick him up. I have business with Bakura tonight."

"Roger that."

* * *

The car that pulls up to the curb just outside Kaiba Corp. when he leaves is not the expected car, nor the usual driver, but the custom hood ornament on the limousine is familiar all the same. With a single nod from him, one of the guards following him breaks away from the group to mount one of the standby motorbikes. As he climbs in and they drive away, he can hear the bike following close behind.

There are two people inside. A mild-mannered thirty-something businessman, almost too perfectly designed to slip into a crowd of other mild-mannered thirty-somethings, holds a briefcase on his lap and smiles placidly as Seto sits opposite him. Beside him is a little old lady, who wouldn't look out of place playing shogi in the park with Ryou's old landlord; Ms. Luan - first name a carefully kept secret.

He's met with the old woman perhaps a handful of times over the years. She was the first organized criminal leader to 'publicly' declare that she was willing to do business with him following Gozaburo's death and re-declaring it after he awoke from his coma, forcing almost all the other groups in Japan to swiftly follow suit or else they'd lose face. She helped him win custody of Mokuba and is responsible for his ownership of one of the Blue Eyes cards. For her to come in person all the way from China can't mean anything good, but Seto can take comfort in knowing that whoever has drawn her ire certainly isn't him. She's always liked him, for some reason he can't fathom. Perhaps Gozaburo was incredibly rude to her once; he wouldn't put it past him to be short-sighted enough to scorn her and for her to hold enough of a grudge to befriend his protégé just to spite him.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Kaiba."

" _Xiàwǔ hao_ , Ms. Luan."

She gifts him a little golf clap. "Your accent's improving, but it's still 'hǎo', not 'hao'."

Coming from her, that's practically a parade in the streets. He nods in thanks. "I'll endeavor to do better next time we speak. What brings you here?"

"Straight to the point, then. Alright - there's been a storm gathering over this little city in my realm of business that I was hoping you might help me shed some light on."

"A storm?"

She leans back in the seat, eyes closed in irritation like she's complaining about her neighbor's unkempt garden rather than the criminal underworld. "I was refreshing a deal with the big boys back in Kobe and one of them mentioned what a pain in the ass setting up a new force down here was going to be. I thought Domino already had its own deals all done and dusted, but they informed me that every contact they had, every front, even the sympathetic cops, had all gone silent - some of them have vanished entirely. Not just their group either. It's as if this city's been wiped completely clean of all the filthy oil that keeps it running smoothly."

"As in, found out."

She shakes her head. "They brought in one of those cops and he had no idea who men he'd shared sake and hookers with a month ago were. He didn't even remember he had a wife to be blackmailed with." She clicks her tongue in disapproval, at either the man's amnesia or the sake and prostitutes; he isn't sure which. The leader of one of the most secretive and powerful mafia groups on mainland China has no business judging moral failings. Especially when she's most likely done this exact same blackmail technique. But Seto bites his tongue, because he's alone in a car with said leader and he's not an idiot. His own guard might be following every step of the way, with more surely waiting to spring to action just out of sight, but there's little they'll be able to do in the event the young man in the car with them carries a gun in the briefcase.

Seto makes a point of keeping an eye on crime statistics of Domino and he has noticed a steep drop off in gang related activity over the last few months, but couldn't muster up the interest to give it any personal investigation. An oversight, one that will not be repeated.

"What does this have to do with me?"

"It has _everything_ to do with you." There's a tone in her voice that sets him on edge, and perhaps she picks up on that. "Oh, relax. You know me better than that! If I had any intention of threatening you, Mokuba would be calling you with my requests from my boat. If I wanted to threaten your company on the other hand, half the press would already be asking about the whereabouts of one Akiyoshi 'Chopman' Himura, while the other half started putting the pieces together behind a thirteen year old boy somehow being awarded sole custody of another child."

"If the current climate is as turbulent as you say, that might end up happening regardless."

Himura could be explained as a hasty oversight, a mistake in paperwork that erroneously stated his criminal background check came back all clear. There were plenty of entirely fictional interns to blame in that scenario and it wasn't as if Himura was around to prove otherwise anymore either. Yugi and the others could have revealed the truth ages ago, but haven't done so.

The custody hearing though, not so easy. Getting caught buying out a judge would throw any and all of his successes in the courtroom into disarray and the damage done to the Kaiba Corp. brand could take years to erase from public memory. Forcing Mokuba to think for even a moment that he could be taken away from Seto was also unacceptable, even if Seto knew he would easily earn custody once again.

"You see? It's in our mutual best interests that a prominent citizen like yourself knows what's going on with their local law enforcement. I'm not asking you to do anything _illegal_ , if that's what your concern is - just do some casual inquiries about the city's security."

After a few moments consideration, he has something. "'After the incident with the Ghouls and the still unsolved disappearance of three competitors, I'm concerned for the safety of the participants of any future tournaments.'"

The best lie is the truth, in Seto's opinion. Those three duelists have never been seen again, despite scores of witnesses reporting being terrified by them. They certainly entered the graveyard but, unlike dozens of other duelists (including Ryou, he suddenly remembers) who were seen seen exiting it over the course of the evening, none of them ever came back out.

Seto knows he once had the Chief of Police and the leader of the local police union on his speed dial, but if they've suddenly changed this drastically then their previous agreement could be null and void. If they even remember making such a deal in the first place. He refuses to hire private forces beyond his and Mokuba's bodyguards. The only army he will ever command is one born from his cards.

"Perfect! Let me tell you, it's a relief to work with someone who can improvise!"

"Likewise. Will that be all?"

"Not quite. Something that would be a big help is a little light deterrence. Nobody wants a bunch of snotty little upstarts running around thinking that a single tattoo and their mother's kitchen knife makes them a big shot around here trying to fill any vacuums. Think of the press! If you could keep the more ... excitable youth of this town out of the way and fighting with cards instead of blades until the dust from the real thing settles, our side of business will be out of your hair in no time."

The request is well timed, probably deliberately so. Anyone who's been paying any attention to the release schedule for new deck themes is aware that they're due an entirely deep ocean themed deck within the week. Suddenly Seto wonders if they have time to squeeze in some sort of ghost pirate ship, considering there's probably some down there for real. Can they feel the weight of the ocean on them? Would one brought to the surface suffer decompression sickness, or collapse like that blobfish plush toy Mokuba has?

She seems to take his silence as acceptance of her terms, at least so far. Then something about her demeanor shifts, like this isn't a question she'd intended on asking at all. "Mr. Kaiba, just... one more thing. I'm a reasonable woman, so it really is optional. Someone else who's vanished happens to be the grandson of an old teammate of mine and I think you might be the only person who can help. His safe return, or what's left of his body, anything so long as I can give her closure."

It's unprecedented, this attempt at an emotional connection from someone like her. Manipulative obviously, he's not naive enough to think otherwise, but even if the option to refuse is false - and indeed, this is probably the only request of hers he can't - there's somehow no malice behind it. Perhaps that's why he doesn't bother pretending to refuse. "Do you think he's had his memory wiped like the others?"

"It's hard to say - his parents broke ties with everyone but their aunt not long after his birth and moved to the states, but I doubt this new regime of officers would care about that sort of distinction. The boy's named was Leo Chang; he'd joined an international exchange student program and ended up at Domino U. He was popular, kind, absurdly handsome..."

"Which means his no doubt many friends would be the best place to start."

"Absolutely."

The unfortunate man is most likely dead, given what he knows of kidnapping and abduction statistics, so he'd be willing to bet that at best, he can deliver proof that a corpse was somewhere once and it might have been him. On the other hand, that's before he takes Ryou into account. Hell, that might make things easier. He's not sure how Ms. Luan or her friend would react to being invited to a seance however.

"Do I have complete discretion to involve anyone I choose?"

"It's yours and their necks on the block if that backfires, so yes. Whoever is doing this might react unpredictably - well, more so than usual - when they realize they've managed to get your attention. We're bringing the dragon to a knife fight, so to speak. We don't know if they'll run screaming or bring out their own knights."

"I don't do favors very often. Aside from the missing man, what can you offer me in return for my help?"

The relief on her face at him essentially agreeing is palpable. The fact that he can even see the emotion on her face in the first place is proof that circumstances truly are dire. "Well, you'd already have my gratitude, and that of my friend. Being owed favors from every single oyabun in the country for helping Domino get back on its feet couldn't hurt either."

That would go a long way in recouping the favors lost from Battle City... "Acceptable."

"Then it's a deal! A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Kaiba."

"The pleasure is mine, Ms. Luan."

It really is; he's supposed to come to her for help, not the other way around - and she asked _three_ weighty tasks at that. Public and private opinion on Seto's abilities may waver from time to time, but the underworld has known from day one exactly what he's capable of.

* * *

He's dropped off back outside the mansion, his actual car waiting for him along with the driver. Almost the second he pulls away from the curb, Seto gets a call from Ryou. His voice is quiet, almost conspiratorial. "Hi, is everything okay where you are?"

His timing is almost perfect - if he'd called during his conversation with Ms. Luan, he would've gotten an earful for sure. "It is - for future reference, if it's not I'll respond with 'I'm busy, just email me the numbers.'"

"Okay! I'll come up with something on my end in the meantime. Mokuba's here, although I suppose you already knew that," he says, his voice almost instantly back to normal. "When did he find out where I lived, by the way?"

Perhaps a little too normal. "I have no idea, but I'll find out. Sorry for the trouble."

"No, no, it's alright. I was just surprised to find him and his friend on my porch, that was all. Do you want me to put him on the line? He's doing some homework with one of his friends."

Getting Mokuba to do his homework is an easy task - when he's alone. Getting him to do it when his friends are around has about as much success as pulling teeth and he would love to know Ryou's trick. It's probably the cool rebellious thing to do at his age, though once they leave he always hits the books without being asked. Seto can't really relate, his own 'normal' rebellious phase severely repressed and delayed. Some might argue that taking the world's biggest war machine and turning it into the world's greatest game machine by force is perhaps the ultimate rebellion, but as far as he's concerned, that's a revolution. Maybe he's only just now hitting the stage of staying up way too late talking to someone. "No need, he'll be coming back home in my car. I'm on my way over."

"Oh, alright. Do you want to head out a little early then?"

There's clouds gathering overhead, but he thinks he'd prefer to risk the rain and hunt ghosts in the light of the city, rather than wait for it to pass and wander the darkness while it sleeps. "Sure."

* * *

The bodyguard, whose first name he should probably remember soon (he's pretty sure it starts with 'A'), is crouched down by a wall near the house when he pulls up. Nothing on his face shows any irritation at Mokuba's deception so far, or any shock at Seto's own appearance. Good. When Seto approaches, he doesn't budge from his spot beyond a momentary flicker of his eyes to acknowledge him and he launches into a report without taking his eyes off the house. "A car containing a single female occupant arrived four minutes ago. She carried nothing with her on entering the house and her arrival didn't seem to be a surprise to Bakura. There's no active search warrants out for her car nor sounds of disturbance and Mokuba hasn't activated his panic button, so I'm just on standby."

Did Ryou ever say he would have company before their outing? He can't think of anything, but then again he is several hours early. The car the guard mentioned is parked not too far down the road, with no lights on.

"Good work, I'm impressed. You're relieved for the night."

"Thank you, but I can't accept that order from you," he says with a shrug. "I can accompany you to the door though."

Before Seto can ask anything else, Ryou's door flies open and a young woman with a black veil over her face stomps out towards her car. She almost wrenches the door off the hinges as she opens and slams it behind her, then turns the ignition. The car sputters and stalls and she smashes her forehead against the steering wheel. Then her shoulders start to shake and whatever torment she's going through becomes far too uncomfortable to witness. He stays behind the wall, the guard equally uncomfortable, until the woman composes herself enough to drive away. The guard walks just behind Seto as they approach the house.

When Ryou opens the door, the first thing Seto notices is that Ryou seems especially jittery as he greets them. The second, almost immediately after, is that there's a stain on Ryou's face, just under his eye. It reddens and spreads a little and Seto realizes that it's not a stain but a _bruise_. Like someone just hit him, and that someone had most likely only just done it, meaning they'd just driven away. It was a black sedan, license plate 46-49 and issued in Domino. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, slim and tall, what little hair he could see was blonde and surely that security guard is competent enough to have high-res images of both. Why was she even here?

"Hey there, Mokuba's in one of the back rooms. I-I'll go tell him you're here," Ryou says, only the slightest tremor in his voice as he turns to leave. Seto grabs Ryou's arm before he can but then Ryou goes completely rigid. He's grabbed the arm that was injured during Battle City, possibly even the scar itself. He doesn't miss the wince as he quickly lets go and makes a mental note to check the doctor's records from Battle City - if there's been any permanent nerve damage, he _needs_ to know.

"Who was that woman?"

Ryou ignores his question and stares at the guard, which means her visit was almost certainly related to something spiritual and nothing more and he needs the guard to leave. "Who are you?"

Seto answers for him. "As of now, Mokuba's newest bodyguard." One already owed one raise, by the looks of things.

"I see. He's in the kitchen with his friend. Second door on the right."

"Thank you," the guard says as he leaves. Seto is quietly grateful that by the sound of Mokuba's voice as he greets the guard, the laughter escaping through the door as it closes, that he has no idea what just happened to Ryou. He doesn't need to see that.

"Sorry about your arm. I didn't realize it still caused you trouble."

Ryou waits until the door latch clicks shut before answering. "It's fine. Anyway, the woman's name is Ms. Chono. I think she taught at Domino for a while, but got caught in a shadow game somehow. She lost, and her penalty was that her face could never be hidden by make-up. I've been trying to break the curse, but it's hard enough tangling with the magic from an item I'm already familiar with. I don't know anything about the magic used by the Puzzle Spirit. It's been slow going and it's not like I can ask him for help."

He speaks so casually of him, the other Yugi. Like he was just an acquaintance who hasn't abandoned them forever to dick around in the afterlife. "Why did she...?" He gestures towards his own face as he forces the errant thought away.

Ryou jumps like he's just remembered it exists, quickly covering the mark with his palm like he hopes Seto will forget it exists so long as he can't see it. "I-I think she was frustrated that I had to cancel without any warning - she showed up just as I hung up on you, so I couldn't stop her from coming over. I invited her in so we could discuss another day but... I can't imagine how difficult this must be for her." Perhaps he sees something on Seto's face he doesn't like, because he hurriedly follows himself up with, "It's not a big deal. Really."

Yes it is. Seto would _never_ tolerate someone hitting him, or Mokuba, no matter how justified that person thought they were. Ryou's trying to help her, most likely putting his own health at risk at that, and _that's_ how she decides to treat him? He's probably not even being paid for this.

This is his fault though, in a way. He's the one who inadvertently made Ryou cancel on Chono, though he doesn't say this out loud as Ryou very deliberately changes the subject. "Now, no offense, but I'd appreciate it if you or Mokuba could give me a heads up if he's planning on coming down here in the future. An emergency I can understand, but I don't want him coming here just for fun without a little warning. Like, if he'd come in while I was working with Ms. Chono, I might not be able to stop him from seeing something he shouldn't."

He doesn't define what 'shouldn't' is, if it's revealing the secret or more of a 'things man was not meant to see' kind of deal. Seto instantly finds himself preferring the former. "Either one of us surprising you sounds like it could be a disaster."

Some odd expression appears on Ryou's face and he looks away. "I'll always be able to tell when you're here, don't worry about that."

Before Seto can get an explanation, the guard reappears with Mokuba and his friend in tow. No matter - Ryou won't be able to dodge his questions later that evening. He walks Mokuba, the guard and his friend to the car, though he stops him from climbing in and puts on his best lecture face. "Mokuba, how did you know this was where he lived?"

"Hacked Domino High's computer system," he says with a cocky shrug. "He moves around a lot, huh."

"How many times have I told you not to hack computer systems that aren't ours?"

"But the password's _still_ 'password123'! I was doing them a favor by exposing the flaws in their security!"

"... Seriously? No, that's besides the point. If your friend tried to copy you and screwed up enough to get caught you'll be the one who gets in trouble."

"Fiiine."

"Of course, not as much trouble as you're in right now. Why didn't you tell Bakura you were coming over, or me for that matter?"

Mokuba shrugs again, a little more naturally this time. "It felt kinda weird that I hadn't met him since I was sick, considering he saved my life and all. I was meeting up with Shun anyway and we were close by, so... What's the big deal, anyway?"

As much as he wants to, he can't really explain what's going on. "Bakura doesn't think it's safe for you to be here unsupervised. If he hadn't come home, what would you have done? What if Bakura didn't recognize you in the dark and called the police?"

He shuffles awkwardly under Seto's stern eyes. He's not trying to make Mokuba feel bad, so he reaches out and ruffles his hair. "Give him a little notice next time, alright?"

Mokuba's face brightens immediately at the mention of 'next time' and Seto's glad of it. He nods at Mokuba's driver, then at his bodyguard. "Drop his friend off, then take him home."

"Yes, sir," they repeat.

"Can we stop to get ice cream first?" his friend pipes up, not shy in the least. He must have known Mokuba for a while now, if this isn't intimidating for him anymore.

The driver looks at the bodyguard, who looks at Mokuba, who nods sagely (after a quick glance at Seto). "Of course, sir," says the driver.

As they drive away, Seto makes a note of asking Ryou if he can give Mokuba a spare key. He's not entirely sure _why_ Mokuba feels so comfortable here, but Seto's not going to challenge him on it. Hopefully Ryou won't object to his home being noted as a safe house, even if it's a conditional one. He's not really thought about Ryou and Mokuba getting along, seeing as how little time they've spent together, but he's glad that they apparently do all the same.

Ryou's already pulling on that black coat of his when he returns to the house, and that's the moment Seto realizes he actually forgot his 'civilian' clothes back at the mansion and only has a suit that probably cost more than this building. He grits his teeth in irritation - that's such a _Jounouchi_ thing to do. He's already gotten Ryou assaulted in his own home and now he's got to borrow his clothes. Great. What a fantastic start to the evening.

"I forgot my clothes", he says, waiting for Ryou to roll his eyes. He doesn't.

"I might have some baggier things laying around, although they might still be a bit short..." He disappears into one of the rooms down the hall and Seto hears the sound of shuffling boxes, a few things hitting the ground and what might be a quietly uttered curse before Ryou emerges again. He leaves one more time to try and find shoes while Seto changes.

A loose grey hoodie that's a little snug on his shoulders, a plain blue shirt that's just barely long enough to reach his waist and black sweatpants, which could probably fit anyone. He looks like anybody who's forsaken fashion for whatever is comfiest to fall back to sleep in once they get home. The sneakers Ryou eventually finds are a little scuffed and beat up, but that's probably what helps them fit.

"You should probably mess up your hair a little too," Ryou says as he tucks his own underneath a loose beanie. "It's a little too neat for the look we're going for."

A few swipes of his fingers and his hair is deemed appropriately disheveled. It's strange - wearing these clothes and changing his hair shouldn't have that much of an impact but when he looks in the mirror on the wall, he doesn't recognize himself. He looks awkward, unsure. Even if they're not exactly forgiving in size he looks so much smaller in this ensemble than his suit. In fairness, this is probably part of the 'look' they need to keep his identity secret, beyond incredibly conspicuous face covering hats or sunglasses on a damp October night. But that doesn't make it any less _weird_.

And they're _Ryou's_ clothes too. They smell of cheap detergent and the cardboard box they were stowed in. He's not shared clothes with anyone since the orphanage, when he was rarely given a choice in the matter.

"Are you ready?"

Ryou stands at the door, patiently waiting like he has been the whole time. Of course, he remembers. Just like Ms. Luan, he didn't come here for fun.

"Let's go."


End file.
